Another Life III
by burmafrd
Summary: More fun for Liz as the world turns.  All due homage to the creators of Highlander and Roswell.  This is just for fun.
1. Chapter 1

Liz sat patiently as her maids and matrons of honor fussed with her Wedding gown. Bowing to the wishes of her parents and particularly her father, she had agreed to a big wedding which she had regretted almost immediately. It had grown bigger and bigger. Her second mistake was to let Isabel set it all up. Now the largest church in Roswell was overflowing with flowers and bunting and everything else. Isabel had told her that a queen was getting married to a king even if no one knew it. So it had to be big and resplendent. She had 3 Matrons of Honor in Isabel, Tess and Maria. She had 3 Maids of Honor in Cynthia, Amanda and Grace. Amanda was particularly tickled at being called a maid at over one thousand. Courtney had asked NOT to be part of it since she wanted to sit in the crowd and watch the fun. Liz told her she was the only one with a brain in the whole bunch.

Max had it a little easier and just waited as they knew that between all those women, it would be a while. Michael was of course his best man, and then had Alex and Kyle, Duncan, Methos, Charlie to hold up the other side. Also in the crowd was Lord Lanar and most of the Prime Minister's cabinet; he had agreed to stay on Antar to keep an eye on things (Max also suspected he was greatly relieved at not having to be a part of this circus). Maria had been having lots of fun with the idea of so many aliens being in Roswell for a wedding without anyone knowing different.

Liz had demanded that her gown look just like the gown she wore the first time on Antar. Max had the giddy thought that maybe she was NOT wearing anything under it this time as well.

Liz walked down the aisle slowly on her father's arm. Just like she had promised almost 3 months earlier when they had left for Antar. She had not realized that the wedding would be this big, but she felt that as happy as that made her parents, it was worth it. Max was waiting for her at the altar, and that was what really mattered.

The last 3 months since the end of the war had been hectic, but the last month or so, it had settled down quite a bit, and they had decided to go back to Earth for the wedding she had promised her father. It had created a bit of a stir in Roswell since Liz and Max were still only 17. And the fact that they were supposedly in a ritzy prep school had some wags spinning some interesting tales. Liz could care less what people said or thought; she just wanted to get married and be with Max.

It turned out that rebuilding Antar went a lot faster than most had thought, and it was pretty much expected to be done in only a year or so. Grace had gone back and forth several times to confer with the Granolith and then apply what she learned in her lab back on Earth. She was on the verge of several important breakthroughs. She had also told Liz that Methos and she would be back to stay for a while if Liz got pregnant. Amanda and Duncan seemed to be thinking the same. Liz said she really wanted to have a child, but being a guinea pig was NOT appealing. Alex was deep into the Antarian technology looking for applications that could be easily used on Earth without attracting too much attention. He was also working with the granolith on identifying all the unique energies generated on both planets. The Granolith had created plans for sensors that could be left on earth, and it could compare those energies with those on Antar and Granular. They were both confident that before long, they would have virtually every single different form of energy identified. Liz pointed out that they could only identify what they could detect; how did they know they had detected all or even most?

Cynthia and Charlie had visited twice—Cynthia really wanted to write a book about the fictional world of Antar, and Charlie had gotten hooked on teaching trainees how to use weapons like crossbows. Antar was now working with regular projectile weapons, but the crossbows and such were considered more proper.

Liz and Max spent a week in the mountains of Roswell as their honeymoon. They had to put up with a distant bodyguard of Antarians, but otherwise, they were alone. That is what they really wanted anyway. They would spend another week on Granular as the other part of their honeymoon.

Isabel and Alex, Tess and Kyle, and Charlie and Cynthia had all gotten together with Maria and Michael and had one big wedding right after they got back from Antar. Liz was surprised that Isabel did not want a big wedding—until Isabel told her that no way would she go through all that Liz would to get married. Liz then vowed revenge on Isabel at some future time.

A somewhat odd couple had started to draw some attention. Richie had spent more time with Courtney than anyone else, and they seemed to click. Courtney had decided to stay on earth full time once things had settled down on Antar. She had gotten a shiny new skin and had the one left in Roswell as a standby. She had also decided to relocate to Seacouver—and Richie seemed quite happy about that.

Joe and Rebecca had settled down together, and he said they would stay put most of the time though an occasional visit to Roswell and Antar was something they would look forward to. Now if Duncan and Amanda did go to stay for a while on Antar, then Joe would have to think about that even if there would be no Immortal challenges involved.

Time went by quickly. Liz was checking her calendar and realized that they had spent almost a year on Antar since the wedding. Then she realized something else—she had not had her period that month, and she was normally very regular. She took a deep breath and realized that she had been a little nauseous the first thing in the morning for the last week or so—and had not thought anything of it since they had realized that her quickening had slowly been diminishing. She then took out a small knife and made a very small cut on her arm—and nothing happened. She put the knife down and placed her hand on her stomach—and she smiled broadly. She walked into the bedroom where Max was just waking up.

Max smiled at the beautiful site of his Queen and Mate walking towards him wearing the shear nightgown that she preferred—and shear it was; all but see through. Then he saw that she was smiling very broadly with tears slowly trailing down her cheeks. He got out of bed and asked her, "Liz, what is wrong?"

"Nothing at all, Max, NOTHING at all. I think I am pregnant."

Maria was already pregnant and so was Tess, and Isabel swore she was working on it, and Alex admitted that that was CERTAINLY true. But they had thought it would take more time with Liz, if it was going to happen at all. Cynthia and Charlie had also decided it was time and were working hard at it. So in one respect, it was just one more pregnancy—but on the other hand…

Liz contacted the Granolith and went down to it to be thoroughly examined . The fact that no one would realize that kind of made Liz smile as she greeted the crowd that normally gathered each day to view the Granolith. The reception she got was every bit as warm as the one she had received right after the final battle; the adoration of the people of Antar for their royal family, and it seemed particularly for their Queen, had not diminished at all. Max had rather ruefully told Liz that their plan to have the monarchy fade away was a total failure.

Liz listened in her mind as the Granolith told her that she was indeed pregnant and should have a normal human delivery. She went back to tell Max, and also told the Granolith to arrange to give a message to those back on earth—that night once the palace grounds were closed for the evening, they would all go down to the Granolith for the message making.

Liz stood next to Max with the rest of the Royal Four (everyone else was on Earth at this time), and waited for the Granolith to tell her they were all ready at the far end. This would be a video as well as audio message.

Jeff and Nancy and the rest of the Roswell crowd (only the Seacouver group were missing) gathered at the house where the transmitter had been set up for these types of messages. Liz telling them that they had important news had stirred them all up with speculation on what it was.

Then Liz appeared on the screen and was holographically projected so as to appear to be right in front of them.

"Mom, Dad, everyone, I have great news. I am pregnant, and the Granolith says I should deliver a normal baby in about 8 months."

Jeff and Nancy and Diane and Phillip cried; and everyone else celebrated. Cynthia was rocked and told Liz that she would give Joe a call so that he could inform the other Immortals that what they had hoped would happen had.

Joe put down the phone and looked over at Rebecca who was checking her latest entry as Grace's watcher. "That was Cynthia. Liz just contacted them and told them that she is pregnant, and the Granolith believes the baby will be perfectly normal and be born in 8 months."

Duncan was looking for Amanda who was down in the gym with Charlie and Methos and Richie. They were all working out that night purely by accident.

Amanda looked up as Duncan came into the gym. She had never seen the look on his face he had now. She put down her sword and walked towards him—to be enveloped in a huge hug and swung around in the air.

"Duncan McLeod, put me down. Are you drunk?"

"No—just happy. Just got a call from Joe. Liz is pregnant."

Amanda gasped and put a hand to her mouth, then sagged against Duncan and started to cry. He just held her as he looked at Methos, who walked out of the room to find a phone—he was calling Grace.

They waited a month to make the announcement. The response put the last nail in the coffin of the idea of getting rid of the Monarchy.

Amanda and Duncan, Grace and Methos arrived a month later. It had been determined that it would take approximately one year for the quickening to fade so as to allow the bearing of children. Joe had decided that he would visit every other month or so just to keep his hand in. In the meantime, Tess was about to give birth with Maria just behind, so all the women were involved and totally engrossed in babyland. Isabel was overjoyed to finally be pregnant (a somewhat skinnier and tired looking Alex was REALLY happy), and Liz was just happy that she would come last.

They were all gathered around the room in the palace that had been designated for births as Tess went into labor. Kyle remained with her all through the 17 hours it took, even when Tess threatened to see to it that he never would father anyone else ever again. Alex had discreetly put a dampening device in the room just in case. One week later, Maria went through the same thing, and Mt. St. Maria truly erupted as Michael got called everything dirty ever imagined. Kyle was impressed by Maria's vocabulary. Luckily, Amy was able to calm her down somewhat. Since Amy had unexpectedly found herself pregnant only a month ago, the two women had grown close than ever.

All the men involved agreed that it was a very good thing that it would be several more months before Isabel was due. Plans were made to NOT be around at that time until they were told in no uncertain terms that that would NOT happen by their significant others. Charlie was thinking hard about things, but Cynthia put her foot down. She would be due just after Isabel and about a month or so before Liz.

The build up to the Royal Birth was aggravating to Liz. She was still able to do her KATA but made sure she did it inside to keep people from worrying. Where the idea that pregnant women were so delicate came from, she had no idea, but if she ever found out, that person would be a head shorter right away.

Isabel was determined to act like a Princess during her birth. That lasted about one hour, then she was treating Alex like every other male so far. Luckily, her time was only 14 hours. Alex was very grateful after he had Max heal his broken hand.

Cynthia showed some serious spunk by lasting almost 3 hours before giving Charlie the same treatment. But then her birthing lasted almost 20 hours, so Charlie really did not see where he gained anything.

Then the big event came. Liz was very much at the end of her rope, and despite being hugely pregnant, kept carrying her sword around with a very evil glint in her eye. It was amazing how much time she got alone that last month.

Liz was holding onto Max's hand but had remained silent except for groans for 8 hours. Max told her to scream or yell if she wanted, but she just kept shaking her head. 12 hours went by, and then she was able to deliver. A very healthy and noisy baby boy. And Max discreetly went outside to have a healer fix his broken-in-5-places hand.

The entire planet celebrated the birth of the Royal Heir. The party lasted a full three days.

Liz lay on their bed nursing their child. Max was so humbled and so happy, he was unable to say a thing. They had decided to name him Phillip after Max's father. The whole family had been gathered, and only now some hours later were they able to have some time alone. Max had healed Liz so that outside of the extra weight, she was perfectly healthy.

One week later, they had the official unveiling of the Heir to the Throne of Antar. Prince Phillip was blessed by the High Priest and Priestess and remarkably slept through the entire ceremony. Liz was just glad that it was done, and things would start to settle down.

Methos found that he really enjoyed his time on Antar, and talking with the Granolith was especially interesting. They were both around 5000 years old, and that alone made for a challenging conversation. Grace was deep into her research on DNA and genetics, and was already wording some theses carefully so as to not draw attention. Liz tried to spend as much time as she could, and since she insisted on bringing the baby with her, Amanda usually found a reason to stop by. Both Grace and Amanda got positively gooey over Prince Phillip, and not just because he represented the possibility of fulfilling a dream that they both had had for so many years. Duncan and Methos were vastly amused by the way the two old Immortal Women acted around Liz's baby. Though they had to admit that the first baby born to a FORMAL IMMORTAL was of course a great curiosity.

Duncan had started to teach advanced sword play to volunteers and was astonished at how many wanted to learn. He knew that Liz's victory over Kivar had something to do with that, but it was still startling. Even though projectile weapons were now standard issue in the Antarian Army. Amanda had decided that Antaris needed to be spruced up and bullied the Prime Minister into giving her a staff for beautification of the city. Duncan remarked that the poor man gave in just to get some peace and quiet.

Alex and the Granolith believed that they were getting close to the point where they could identify all the differences in the suns' and planets' energy signatures between Earth and Antar. What they wanted was a guinea pig that did not want to have children. Duncan talked Richie into coming to Antar, and of course Courtney taged along. Liz had an idea and talked to the granolith. Then talked with Grace as well.

Courtney was holding Phillip and cooing just like the rest have done. Liz noticed the wistful look on her face as she held the baby and decided it was time to discuss something that she, the granolith, and Grace had discussed.

Courtney looked up and saw that Liz was biting her lip. That was a tip off that she had something to discuss that was more important than baby things. "OK, Liz you got that look on your face, and you are biting your lip, so spit it out."

Liz takes a deep breath. "Courtney, I know you are not exactly enamored of your people and not particularly proud to be part of them."

Puzzled, Courtney nodded. "Never have been, never will be. What's up Liz?"

"I have talked to the Granolith and to Grace, and we have a proposal to offer you. It's kind of out there, but I noticed that you and Richie have gotten close, so that is why I enquired and had the Granolith do some studies and look at possibilities."

Now intrigued, Courtney put Phillip in his cradle and walked over to where Liz was sitting.

"Come on, Liz; just say it."

"We believe we can change your DNA and make you either Human or Antarian."

Courtney's mouth dropped open, and she just stared.

Liz babbled a little. "We think there should be no problems, but it will take some time, and you will have to stay in stasis for the transformation. It will take several months. But all indications are that it should work."

Courtney's mind whirled. She realized that she really wanted this. But which way to go—Human or Antarian. If she went Antarian, she would still have powers; if she went human, she would be just like Richie. She looked at Liz. "I want this. Just not sure which way to go. I need to talk to Richie."

Liz smiled at her. Happy that her way out there idea apparently had indeed struck a chord.

The arrangements to try and change Courtney took some time to put together. Richie had been worried about the whole thing but understood why Courtney wanted to change. She had finally decided to go for Antarian status as that would seem to be the safest choice. The Granolith was confident that nothing would go wrong, but Grace and Liz were less so and demanded the whole process be shown step by step. After more than a month of examination by Liz, Grace, and Methos, they all agreed that there seemed to be nothing left out. The Granolith had shown the plans for the pod, and it was quite similar to the ones used by the Royal Four. The genetic manipulation of DNA was more extensive, and that was the key question—was it too much? Alex and his Antarian nerd-herd built the pod, and the Granolith was satisfied with it. Finally, 3 months after deciding to do it, Courtney was placed in the pod which would be in a small building right next to the Granolith—Liz had made it quite clear that 24/7 monitoring of it by the Granolith was a must. It was expected to take between 4-6 months. Richie made it clear he would be staying for the entire period.

Within one year of taking up residence, all signs of immortality had disappeared from Duncan and the rest, even Methos. Shortly thereafter, they were all gratified and elated when first Grace and then Amanda became pregnant. In the meantime, Tess and Isabel also became pregnant again. Maria announced that she would wait another year for their second child (Michael was not exactly ecstatic but quite in favor of waiting). Liz and Max had decided to let nature take its course, and naturally, Liz soon became pregnant.

It was now two full years since the defeat of Kivar (he had been tried and executed at the one year anniversary—not that anyone had ever had any doubts about his guilt). All the refugees that wanted to return had at the end of the first year, and Antar had settled down to what some might call boring but many would call comfortable times. Indeed, it was the children being born to the Royals that captured the most attention.

Alex had been able to quietly bring several technological advances from Antar to Earth, primarily in the areas of computers and medical diagnostics. Grace had managed to ghostwrite several papers in regards to Microbiology and DNA Genetics that had those two areas whirling and trying to find out who had written them. Max had pushed, at Liz's urging, that many neglected fields of research be reopened as regards astronomy, and advances in power generation and distribution, as well as increased research into Microbiotics, and modification of common food plants to give greater yields.

Several Space Telescopes that had been in the planning stages before the war were dusted off and built and launched. High speed FTL ships were still VERY expensive, and this was a much cheaper way to observe the cosmos. Research was pushed in the area of slower, more simple and robust FTL drives, and progress came quickly. By the end of the first year, a design that allowed travel to earth in one year with minimal energy and cost was tested and shown to work well. The Asteroid belt that was rich in materials but had barely been explored was put on the front burner, and with agreements with the other two planets besides Antar and Granular, mining of asteroids had begun. Max was also pushing an expanded merchant fleet of ships for trade—he envisioned Earth and other possibilities. There had been some contact years ago with other races outside the Pegasus System, but the ongoing war had ended those efforts, and those races had not wanted to approach a system at war. Liz urged that the few ships that Antar had that were very fast head out and make contact again and try and start trading. That would help the Pegasus system develop a larger economy.

Year three after the war began with Grace giving birth to a baby girl, and soon followed by Amanda giving birth—to twins! A boy and a girl. Duncan wished for his immortality again after getting HIS hand broken by Amanda. Max quickly healed it. Methos was smirking since Grace had told him NOT to hold her hand. Liz soon followed by having a daughter, and Isabel and Tess had both had sons.

Liz was nursing her daughter, whom she had named Claudia after her grandmother (who had unfortunately passed away just before Liz left for Antar the first time). Max was sitting next to her, just enjoying their alone time. They did not get enough of that, what with Liz insisting on doing most of the work raising the children (to the chagrin of the Royal Servants, who in past times did most of that), and Max still very busy as King. Due to popular pressure, there still was much that a King had to do, the new constitution making him not only head of state, but head of the Government. The Prime Minister ran the day to day parts, but all major decisions and all bills passed by the Assembly had to be signed by the King.

More good news came soon after as Courtney emerged from her pod a full Antarian with no side effects. It had taken longer than the Granolith thought—almost 8 months—but it had worked beautifully. A very impatient Richie was waiting as she woke up. They immediately started working on their next project—a baby. Duncan and the other former Immortals had gone back to Earth to see if they would regain their quickening. They left shortly after the births of the babies. One thing that they and Joe and Cynthia, as well as Liz, had discussed was whether to quietly tell other immortals about the possibility of having children. Alex and the Granolith had become quite confident that they could build a device that would remove all the energy needed for the quickening so that Immortals would not have to leave Earth. Courtney going into the pod had scuppered the idea of using Richie as the Guinea pig. Duncan had the thought of talking to the Immortal couple that he knew who had been together for almost 300 years. He decided to approach them after they got back to Earth.

At the end of three years, Liz was talking about taking an extended trip back to Earth to regain her quickening or to try out the Granolith's proposal to have the device broadcast the energy to her to see if that worked. After 6 months back on Earth, Duncan had reported that they all had began to get back their quickening. Grace was figuring it would take from 12-18 months to regain it fully. Max pointed out that they could not leave for that long, and Liz could not go alone either. So she agreed to try the device. She had to wear a small transmitter whenever she left the Palace which was annoying, but that was the way it had to be. They had already put together a pod for the couple that Duncan knew—they would be placed in suspended animation and basically frozen in a chamber built to filter out all energies—only basic nourishment and life support would be used. It was thought that it would take only about 6 months this way since all energies would be blocked—on Antar, some similar energies kept the quickening from quickly fading away.

The ships that had made contact with the other races out there had been fairly successful, and trading was beginning. A dozen new merchant ships had been built, and they were already busy; and some ships from those other worlds had begun to trade with Antar and the other planets as well. Max had asked the astronomy experts to figure out as best they could how many advanced races were in this part of the galaxy as the possibility of more trade had come up from merchants on all the Pegasus System's worlds. Max and Liz were also seriously considering letting some of Earth's governments know what was going on in preparation for letting the people of Earth KNOW that they were not alone. Interstellar trade would help both Earth and the other planets, and also there were more than enough habitable worlds out there to colonize. There were several between Earth and Antar, and Max had ordered the speedy ships to fully survey them. While there was no pressure now to do so from the Pegasus side, it was evident that Earth needed some places in the future to take the pressure off of Earth's natural resources.

Unfortunately, the survey ships found some problems with what were thought to be good worlds for colonization. Of the 6 that were suitable, two were found to be geologically unstable, and therefore, out of the question. One more was in a system with a sun that was showing instability—and could therefore send out huge solar flares of terrible radiation that would fry any intelligent life there. The last three were carefully examined and found to be light planets which meant that their atmospheres were thin—and worst had virtually non-existent magnetic belts, which meant they were totally vulnerable to radiation from their suns. Max was discouraged but not without hope; he ordered the ships to look for more planets. However, he was told that they had already looked at all known habitable planets. More would have to be found, but that would take time.

More time passed as it usually does. Courtney became pregnant; Maria decided she had waited long enough and became pregnant as well. Liz found her quickening returning; the couple on Earth found theirs gone and quickly got pregnant as well. Duncan and the others had gotten their full quickenings back, even Methos.

The scout ship called Antarian Freedom was examining a system about 2 light years away from the Pegasus system when it noticed a interstellar rogue moving at a fairly great speed toward the Pegasus system. There had been a binary system in that general direction that had the old red sun go supernova and fling the other sun—a dwarf star—away. This was exceedingly rare, and the scout ship immediately examined the find. The star had gone nova over 50 years ago, but no one had paid much attention due to the outbreak of the Antarian civil war. And there were no other intelligent races around that would have been interested.

The captain of the scout ship asked his astronomy expert if he was sure of what he had found.

"Captain, I have run the formula five times and have rechecked the sensor readings three times and recalibrated them twice. There is no doubt—this dwarf star rogue will miss our sun and the other planets but will pass so close to Antar and Granular that they will be destroyed. It is moving at a tremendous speed—very nearly 1/3 light speed. At that rate, it will hit the Pegasus system in a little over 3 years. It's hard to tell if at its current heading, it will pick up much speed from our sun. Objects of this size and mass might not follow our formulas as well considering the relative speed we are talking. Unfortunately, its course is steady and leaves no doubt what will happen. It will come in at an angle and sideswipe both worlds. Even if the time is off by as much as a month either way, the result will be the same. Even if it is a dwarf star, its heat and energy and gravitational pull will destroy any other planetary body at a considerably farther distance than it will be from either Granular or Antar."

Max received the preliminary report from the scout ship and just sat there in shock. Then he called for a full council meeting with all the group as well. After that, he went to look for Liz. He found her in the room they had made up as a nursery just off of their room. Phillip was chasing a ball on his pudgy 3 year old legs while Claudia was crawling all over. Max stood in the doorway for a moment just taking in his family—drawing strength just from watching them. Liz looked up with a smile that quickly left. Glancing over at Phillip to see what he was doing, she put Claudia back in her cradle and went to him.

"What is it, Max—I can tell it's not good news. I should have picked up on that because you usually signal me when something is wrong—I was too busy with the kids to notice."

Max just reached for his mate and held her. Liz was starting to get really worried—this had to be something big and real bad.

"All our work over the last 3 years and more is all going to waste, mostly. The universe has decided to tip the applecart over."

Liz looked up at him, then pulled him over to some chairs and sat him down with her in his lap.

"Spit it out, Max."

"One of our scout ships has found a rogue dwarf star moving at one third light speed heading for Pegasus. Granular and Antar are right in its way. The other two should be saf, but we are toast."

Liz sat back and blinked. Then she thought. Hard.

"They are sure there is no mistake?"

"The message said they had checked and rechecked and did it again, and the answer remains the same."

"Rogue dwarf star. That makes it a lot harder. A planet does not have the same range of damage, and if worst came to worst, we could probably find a way to blow it up. A star is a totally different story—nothing we can do about that. So if their calculations are correct, then we have to evacuate both Granular and Antar. 400 million people. How long do we have?"

"They say 3 years."

"Ouch—but it could be worse. We are lucky in one respect that we are already building ships and have started mining the asteroid belt. We have a foundation to build on. First thing we need to do is tell Lord Lanar so he has as much warning as possible. Then we need to talk to the Granolith and get it working on the problem. This is a bad thing, but it is not yet the end of everything."

Max held Liz and smiled, somehow when he was down, no matter what, she made him feel better. Even in a situation like this, she had immediately started to figure out what to do to make things better. Max was not religious, but over the last 4 years, he had thanked god many times for bringing Liz into his life.

Max, Liz, Michael, Maria, Isabel, Alex, Tess, Kyle, Charlie, and Cynthia were in the Throne room after Max had set a meeting before the one with the cabinet. He had already relayed the original message to Lord Lanar. Liz had contacted the Granolith and had filled it in. It was already working on projections and scenarios.

Max took a deep breath and squeezed Liz's hand. The rest of them saw that and knew without a doubt that this is a big one and not a good one. Maria as usual was first.

"OK, Max, let us have it. We can all see that it's big and bad."

"Just got a message from one of our scout ships. A rogue Dwarf star is on a collision course with Antar and Granular and will hit in about 3 years. There is no hope of either planet surviving. We have to evacuate 400 million people in 3 years and find a place for them. That is it in a nutshell."

The silence that followed that was profound. All involved realized that everything had just changed—and while that was not the first time for this group, this was bigger than all the others.

Alex was already thinking hard and was the first to comment.

"400 million people need a lot of space and resources. Where are we going to take them? The planets that we have found so far are NOT suitable. They are also not subject to terraforming even if we had the current capability. The planets with thin atmospheres are that way due to low gravity, and nothing can really be done about that. The unstable ones—we have no idea how long they might last, so they would be the absolute last resorts. The planets with no magnetic field—we would have to rig shielding that would bring its own problems. And it would be very difficult to do in the time we have. Not to mention that that would divert resources from moving the people. So that means since the remaining two planets in this system are not options either—that means we have to take them to Earth."

Liz nodded. "That is pretty much my conclusion as well. I have contacted the granolith, and it is working on plans right now and examining the initial data to make sure that there was no mistake. But for all practical purposes, there is only one place to take the people, and unfortunately, it's already occupied. Now there are large stretches on Earth that are sparsely populated—and that way for a reason—but still. The Australian subcontinent is one place; the deserts of northern and central Africa; the Canadian Shield. Siberia. Unfortunately, each of those places are not only sparsely populated but have virtually no infrastructure as well. We would have to bring everything and have to be able to support all by what we bring. Raw materials and such can be had, but everything else we have to take care of."

Michael had been thinking furiously. "We have to let the governments of Earth know first. And that can of worms is going to be a lot of fun to open. This is going to cause all sorts of trouble."

Isabel was nodding. "Aliens exist and are coming Here! Invasion! Two headed monsters in your backyard! I can just imagine the media."

Kyle was next. "Max, any chance that we can find a suitable planet a lot closer then Earth? Since we can all pretty much imagine all the trouble that going there will bring."

Max shook his head. "We have had scout ships looking for almost two years now, and the only place they have not looked is in the clusters with our tentative new trading partners. And from what we have been able to find out in other ways, there are no uninhabited planets that we could really go to there. Not to mention the trouble that might cause with the species already in those areas. Anything else is a lot farther away, and even our fastest ships would need time to get there. And time is what we are short of. I am going to send them anyway just in case we get lucky, but we need to start planning now and making preparations right away. And that means Earth. If we find a place better in a year or so, then we can switch—but it would be criminally negligent to count on anyplace else with what we know now. And with all the troubles we can already foresee as regards going to Earth, we have to start working with the governments and people of Earth right away if it's going to work at all."

After the meeting with the Group, Max had his meeting with the government. Needless to say, there were a great many comments after he dropped the bombshell. He directed that nothing be said outside of the room for the time being while they gathered as much information as possible. He knew of course that the word would get out—it was too big not to.

Liz had left the first meeting to go down and converse with the Granolith. She directed the guards to clear the area so that they would have privacy.

The Granolith was humming fairly loudly which was an indication it was deep in thought and calculations. Liz sat on the ground and leaned up against it. She felt she could use the time to gather her thoughts anyway. If she had remembered to bring her sword, she probably would have done her KATA, but then that would have attracted more attention. And they really needed to try and keep things as quiet as possible, though Liz knew that rumors would be skyrocketing as soon as the government was informed.

Liz was still coming to grips with the magnitude of the situation. Even fighting a war had not been anywhere near as daunting as this was. 400 million people. That kept spinning around her head. To be able to transport that many would be an incredible undertaking. The physical scale alone was immense. At an average weight of 125 lbs per every man, woman, and child, that was 50 billion pounds or 25 million tons. At an average of 20 cubic feet, that worked out to 8 billion cubic feet. If each ship was built 1000 feet long and 500 feet in diameter, with 40% taken up by the engines and life support and such, you would need 100 of them just to transport the people with nothing else. They had built 10 of those in 2 years; they would need to accelerate production by 1000%. They would have to bring materials for temporary housing and to support that housing; power and such. Food—they would need to have some stockpiled there—at least a year's worth. They HAD to be self sufficient—anything else was inviting certain disaster.

The Granolith quieted. Liz still sat there thinking. "Queen Elizabeth, what do you require?"

Liz jumped—startled. Then she stood up. "What have you been able to figure out about our situation?"

"Within the current time constraints, it is indeed possible to relocate the combined populations of Granular and Antar to Earth. However, all other activities must cease immediately, and all efforts must be concentrated on the construction of the necessary ships for transport. More detailed plans are available. The current design of ships under construction are adequate for the mission. No change of the basic design will be needed. However, the interior of the ships will need a total redesign. The population will have to be podded and put in suspended animation for the duration of the voyage. Therefore the production of pods will be a critical area. Designs are available."

Liz nodded. "OK, print out your plans for the ship redesign and the pods. Also lay out your recommendations on how to speed up construction. We will need them as soon as possible."

"As you wish, Queen Elizabeth."

Max was holding Claudia and humming gently as she slept. Liz watched him from the door of the nursery. She decided to just wait and quietly went back into their bedroom. She lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. She had had to make a conscious decision to NOT let this totally dominate all her thoughts and dreams. As big as it was, it was still not the whole universe. She had to hold to that and not let go. And she had to make sure that Max did the same.

Max put Claudia back into her crib. Phillip was sound asleep in his. He walked back into the bedroom and found Liz lying on the bed staring up at the ceiling. He moved over and lay down beside her. She reached over and held his hand. He tugged her over until she was lying on his chest. And then he just held her. Liz enjoyed this but knew she had to keep going.

"Talked to the Granolith. It said that if we organize things right and do not screw up, we should be able to get it done. We just have to ramp up production of the ships by 1000% and make 400 million life support pods to put in them. Nothing really to it."

Max laughed slightly. Liz smiled as that is what she wanted him to do.

"Good to know the Granolith is optimistic. That is more then I could say for the cabinet meeting. Lots of doom and gloom there. And of course we can count on the word leaking out pretty fast. So we are going to have to address the people pretty quick. And of course, we really need to figure out how we are going to tell Earth—GUESS WHAT. 400 MILLION aliens are coming."

"Sounds like a cheap movie."

"Well one thing for sure… NOTHING is going to be cheap about any of this."

"True—but it's not like we could spend it on anything else. Since everything around here has an expiration date."

"I think we need to contact the Sheriff and have him contact that Major Tolner. We could start there. Or on the other hand, we could take one of the ships and land it on the White House lawn. That would be the quick way."

"Yeah, but it would cause lots of panic, and since we are going to be asking for some big favors, that is not the way to try and make nice."

"That is why I think we need to start low and work our way up. We do have time to do this right."

"Sounds like a plan to me. Oh and by the way, I noticed that my quickening is just about to where it was before I came here. Accidentally cut my finger on the corner of the crib this morning, and the blue sparks took care of things in less than a minute. So Alex and the Granolith have figured things out there. Of course, that part is null and void now; though the dampening part for those that want kids is still a very valid thing. I was going to tell you that this morning, but a small thing like the end of the world came up."

"That is good to hear—I always felt better with you as an Immortal. Less worry for me."

"Got to admit that it's a comfort to me, not to mention I no longer have to worry about birth control. Now that I know we can switch it on or off, Immortality no longer seems like a prison sentence like it once did."

That got Max to look at Liz. He had had hints of that before, but this was the first time she had admitted it. He could sort of see both sides of the equation, but to him, now that they had children, he really did like it better that Liz was immortal.

Liz smiled back at him. She knew that that had surprised him a little. But that was really the way she had felt. To live while everyone around you got old and died did not seem like any kind of "prize" to her.

That evening, they went down to the Granolith (for the foreseeable future, Max had ordered it sealed off to the public). Max asked the Granolith to alert the Sheriff for an important message. Liz had figured the time and thought that he would be home right now.

Sheriff Valenti had just walked in the door, where Amy was cuddling 2 year old Samuel at the kitchen table when the buzzer for the transmitter hooked to the Granolith went off. He walked over to the cabinet that had what looked like an ordinary AM/FM radio (Alex had fixed it to do that as well so that it would not attract attention) and flipped on the receive switch and checked the readout. He saw that they were waiting on Antar and pressed the button to show that he was listening.

The Granolith signaled that the other end was waiting. Max took a deep breath.

"Sheriff, how do you read me?"

"Loud and Clear, Max. What's up?"

"This is a big one, Sheriff. Need to get everyone—and I do mean everyone—there as soon as possible. The Seacouver group as well. Will need them at the chamber to give them this one. So let us know when they can be there."

"Got it, Max, and will let you know as soon as possible."

The Sheriff switched off the transmitter and looked at Amy, who looked worried.

"Jim, this does not sound like good news."

"I think you are right. Well I better start to get the word out."

Duncan put down the phone and looked over at Amanda who was fussing with the twins, who had just had their first birthday. She looked up at him.

"Trouble?"

"Just got a call from the Sheriff. Max just contacted him and said something big was coming and to get everyone to Roswell to the chamber for the message. This sounds ominous. I will call Joe, and he can get a hold of Cynthia and Charlie. You call Richie."

Jeff looked up at the Sheriff as he walked in the Crashdown. They were just about to close. The Sheriff sort of jerked his head towards the upstairs and Jeff nodded. He followed the sheriff up the stairs to the apartment.

Nancy looked up from the books as the Sheriff and Jeff walked in. She stood up and faced them.

"OK, I can guess something is up. What is it?"

The Sheriff shrugged. "Got a message from Max that he needed everyone together at the chamber as soon as we could get the Seacouver group here. Said it was big but gave no details."

Methos watched Grace with their son. He had never thought this day would come—5000 years of not even being able to even dream. Nothing he had ever felt or experienced, not his first quickening, nothing compared to this. He had a terrible fear that this was all a dream, and that at any moment, he would wake up. Then the phone rang, and he picked it up to hear Duncan tell him that Max needed everyone in Roswell for a critical message as soon as they could make it. Duncan had already gotten a charter jet that would be able to get them there the next morning. Methos told him they would be at the airport at 9AM. Then he hung up. Grace was looking at him.

"I think we have trouble coming. Max said he needed everyone in Roswell ASAP. We leave tomorrow morning."

Grace sighed. "Things were going much too well. This visit to Seacouver went too well." They had decided for the time being to stay in Roswell as Grace was still involved in her experiments and DNA testing. Methos found that with Grace and Adam (he well remembered the looks he got from Duncan and Joe about that), Roswell was just fine with him.

Joe looked over at Rebecca after putting the phone down. "Duncan said Max wants everyone in Roswell ASAP. Big trouble coming, he thinks. Duncan has a small jet chartered for tomorrow morning." Rebecca had been knitting two small sweaters for the twins, Sally and William. Joe had been totally stunned when Duncan had asked him to be Godfather and Rebecca Godmother to them. And so very honored and humbled. After the return from Antar with the twins, Joe had been torn about what to put in Duncan's chronicle. Amanda's watcher also came to him and asked where they had been. Joe had told her that Duncan had dropped out of site with Amanda and then had reappeared almost two years later with twins. Joe had finally gone to the council and reported everything. They had refused to believe him until he had shown them the video evidence from Antar; and Grace's DNA and genetic research. Needless to say, they were totally stunned. And then when he had reported the couple that had been podded (showing their watchers where they had gone) and their baby, it just floored them. The council then tried to figure out what to do. That was some months ago, and they still were struggling with the situation. That amused Joe to some extent. At least now he had a free hand.

Duncan was just closing up the Dojo when he felt the Buzz. He knew that Richie was with Courtney and the baby; and Methos was with Grace and their child. So this had to be someone else. He waited for the person to come to the door. He thought that he recognized the buzz but was not sure. The knock on the door came, and he went to open it. He was amazed at who was there.

Cassandra had had a dream some months ago about Duncan McLeod and a baby, but it was wrapped up in other images that made no sense. She did a dream search, but that cleared up nothing. Then she had had one about Methos and a child as well. Then a young dark haired woman with a sword in one hand and a baby in the other. Enough was enough, and she left northern Scotland and headed for Seacouver. She knew where Duncan was, and he would know where the others were; of that she was certain.

Duncan smiled at her. He had been thinking about contacting her about the possibilities that Immortals now had. "Welcome. I am glad to see you and had been thinking about contacting you. There have been big changes. There are now possibilities for Immortals that we have never had before."

Cassandra was taken aback by the clear happiness and joy radiating from Duncan. He had never been like this before. She began to suspect that her dreams might have held more literal truth then she had thought. She followed Duncan up the stairs to the apartments. He opened a door, and she followed him in. To see Amanda with twin babies acting just like any other mother. Cassandra stood in shock as the realization hit her. She turned to Duncan and spoke just one word.

"How?"

Richie held young Angie while Courtney got a new diaper. HE had never been so happy and content in his life. Courtney had told him that in many ways, she was a loaner and had never had any kind of a relationship before. He told her that he really had not had a serious one either. Then they had met each other in the craziness of Roswell and Aliens and so on, and they had clicked. She had gone through her transformation, and when she emerged from her pod, Richie had thought he would never be happier. He found out he was wrong when he held his daughter for the first time. He sighed as…

He remembered the phone call he had gotten from Amanda. More alien craziness it seemed. *Well I guess I had to expect things would not stay quiet for long.*

Courtney looked at him as she heard the sigh. She had found out that when she was transformed, she had to learn how to see and hear and feel the world again. Her senses felt totally different. Without the filtration of the skin, everything was more real and vivid. She looked at their child—never had she felt so humble as the first time she held her baby. Feelings and emotions that she had never suspected had crashed through her. And she now knew that for the first time in her almost 70 years, she was really living.

"No point in worrying. We will find out soon enough. Now hand Angie over since we both know who is better at diapering."

Cassandra marveled at the feel of holding little Sally in her arms. Over the millennia, she had held many babies—but somehow this one was different. She had known early on that she could not have children and had had over 2500 years to get used to the idea. Now she knew she COULD have children. And that changed everything. She had asked Duncan and Amanda how they would cope with the gradual aging of their children. Their responses astonished her.

"We will cope with it the way we have always done so. But we will also have the comfort more than likely of grand children and great grandchildren and so on. And who knows what the future may bring. This gift is so precious that to question the future seems wrong."

Amanda was also very clear. "I have wanted this so badly for a thousand years. I tried to bury it deep inside myself and covered it by appearing to not care at all. I perfected that mask over the centuries until I almost believed it myself. Then the chance came, and suddenly nothing else mattered. As Duncan said, we will cope with it—in the knowledge of the generations to come."

Duncan had looked at her. "I want you to come with us to Roswell tomorrow. You need to meet everyone and get to know them. Besides, if what Max has to say is as big as it sounds, we will need everyone's help."

Cassandra was still trying to interpret her dreams. "I have dreamed of a young woman, brunette and small, with a sword in one hand and a Baby in the other."

Duncan smiled. "That was my student, Elizabeth Parker, the first immortal to have a child. And now Queen of Antar. She also took down the dictator that had started a 50 year long civil war. You will probably get a chance to meet her if we go to Antar or they come here."

Cassandra's mouth dropped open. She shook her head. "It just gets more and more complicated and more and more confusing."

Amanda grinned. "Welcome to Immortal Life crossed with Aliens in the 21st Century."  
They were all gathered the day after the call came. Once the sheriff had been notified that the Seacouver group would be in by noon, he sent a message and got a reply that Max would be sending it at 5 that afternoon. So they first met at the house, which was barely big enough for the gathering. Duncan, Amanda and the twins; Methos, Grace and Adam; Richie, Courtney and Angie; Charlie, Cynthia and Samantha; Jeff and Nancy; Diane and Phillip; the Whitmans; The Sheriff, Amy and Samuel; Joe and Rebecca; and Cassandra. The Sheriff had arranged for several vans which were needed. At 4, they left and headed for the pod chamber. They got there at just after 4:30. So they had about 15-20 minutes once they got to the pod chamber. Which was just big enough since the wall had left with the Granolith.

At precisely 5, the image of Max beamed into the chamber.

"Glad to see you all could make it. I wish I had better news. Though I guess it could be a lot worse. Here is the problem. About 5 days ago, one of our scout ships spotted a rogue Dwarf Star heading at what for a natural body is incredible speed—almost 1/3 the speed of light—heading towards the Pegasus System. About 50 years ago, a star went Nova, and it was in a binary system. We think it flung this dwarf star out—why it did not destroy it is a mystery, but what is is what is. It will miss our sun but take out Granular and Antar. There is no mistake and nothing we can do about it. A rogue meteor or comet or even planet we could destroy. Nothing we can do to a sun, even a dwarf. We have just over 3 years to evacuate the 400 million people of Granular and Antar. Now of all the planets we have been able to find over the past couple of years, NONE of them are fit to go to for various reasons. So there is only one place we can go that we can survive. I guess you all can figure out what planet that is." He paused to let that sink in.

"We are already starting to accelerate the building of ships for the evacuation. Thank God we started this three years ago and already have proven designs and shipyards started and ships already proven. We have to redesign their interiors, but that is not a major problem. We will be podding the people—suspended animation—since the trip will take almost one year, and there is no way we can take the people and the necessary food and life support means without building twice as many ships, and that is impossible. We can manage that. It will be difficult and close, but we can do it. There will actually be three flights. First one brings material and supplies and such. Second brings food. The last will be the people. We think we can supply everything that will be needed and will not have to depend on Earth for anything but the actual real estate to settle on. And then only until we find a planet elsewhere to colonize. However, we do not know how long that might take. Probably years. We want to be completely self-sufficient for the first year, and then be able to grow our own food after that."

Max paused again and looked at the people there. More than a couple had their mouths hanging open. Well not much of a surprise at that. As Liz said, it was like a cheap Sci-fi movie.

"Now we come to the real problem. The people and governments of Earth. We are looking at the following areas: Outback Australia; the Canadian Shield; Siberia; Central and Northern Africa. The five least populated areas on Earth. We figure to contact the US Government first, and then go from there. Sheriff, we were thinking you could call up your contacts and start there. This of course will be very tricky, and there are lots of pitfalls easily visible. I hate to say this, but we do have the necessary technology to just go to one or two of these places and say that is that, and we can fight off anyone trying to throw us off. BUT that is the absolute last resort. I want this to be a cooperative situation. We can help Earth with a lot of their problems as regards energy and other situations. And I will make it clear that we stay only until we can find somewhere else to go. There are a lot of systems and a lot of planets, and we will find a good one sooner or later. BUT we have to have a place NOW. There is of course a chance that one of our scout ships will find a planet we can go to, and we will not come here. However, right now, that does not look likely. And at a certain point, we will be locked in and have to come here first no matter what. So there it is my friends."

For a few moments there was absolute silence in the Chamber. Then some muttering and finally general conversation. Max let it go on for a few minutes, then asked for silence again.

"OK people, now you know. Any ideas no matter how far out there are welcome. Sheriff, I guess the ball is in your court now."

James Valenti, Sheriff of Roswell, New Mexico, realized that he had reached a critical point in his life. He looked over at Amy and his son and took a deep breath. He looked at Max. "I will contact him tomorrow. Probably will see him the next day. He usually is pretty quick. Of course, he may have been transferred, but someone will come. How do we handle it from there?"

Courtney held her daughter and closed her eyes. Then she handed her to Richie and stepped forward.

"I will be here in the chamber when you bring the officer here. He can see Max and hear him, but I will need to show him that I am an alien to reinforce what Max is saying. Then they can bring a group here next."

Max looked at her. "Are you sure about this Courtney? This could get ugly."

"Yes I am. Without you and your friendship and Liz and the rest, what would I have now compared to what I do have now?"

Max thought for a moment. "As long as you remain in the chamber, the Granolith can pull you out if necessary. So we can give you some cover and protection."

Courtney nodded. "That should be enough."

Richie was torn. Very proud of her but very frightened of the possibilities. And he knew he could not be there since, if the worst came to the worst he would need to take care of Angie. Then he had a thought. "Max, could you arrange to transport me and Angie there just before. That way if you have to pull her in, we will be waiting for her. If things go OK, we can just come back."

Max nodded. "That is no problem, and it's a good idea."

The Sheriff had been thinking. "We might be advised to put most of the Roswell people on the same thing. If things go bad, they will be looking all over town, and we will be the ones that stand out. They look at me, and they find Maria, Kyle and Tess, and then the string goes around to Michael and Max and Isabel and Liz and so on. And their families."

Max sighed. "You are right. We should plan for that contingency." He looked around the chamber. "It's probably a good idea if you all were to come to Antar for the time being. That way, the military and the FBI and whatever alphabet soup that shows up will have no one to grab."

Everyone in the chamber sadly realized that the Sheriff was right.

Duncan had been thinking very hard. His connection to Liz was not great, but it was there. And of course Cynthia had been seen with Liz a lot—not to mention that wedding of Liz's. The wedding picture alone gets all of them. However, Immortals are masters at fading into the woodwork and out of sight. He looked at Max.

"I think we Immortals can safely stay back in Seacouver and just be ready to quickly disappear. We after all have done that many times. That will put less of a burden on you."

Max looked at Duncan and nodded. "Thanks, Duncan."

Jeff and Nancy and the other families had been quietly talking. He stepped forward towards Max. "We are all agreed that we should be there during this. If the military or the government panics or reacts badly, it would get ugly very quickly."

Methos had also been thinking. Grace had a bigger connection due to the house then any of the other Immortals. That connection would be found very quickly. But of course they all had alternate identities that were available for immediate use. So being in Seacouver or somewhere else at that time would be the best thing for them. He was sadly familiar with superstition and witch hunts and frightened mobs and frightened leaders. He looked at Max.

"Duncan is right that we need to be NOT here when this all goes down. As long as we can get some warning if it all comes apart, we will be ok."

Max nodded again. "I will have the Granolith build another communicator right now and have it transported tomorrow. You can take it with you to Seacouver so you can listen in. If it goes bad, then you should have plenty of time to split."

The meeting broke up soon after that. The parents and those going to Antar would do so the next day. And the day after that, things would start.

Lt. Col. Tolner was still getting used to his new rank, and more than that, his new responsibilities. Despite the fact that three years had gone by with no hint of any other alien presence, his position was still considered very sensitive and high visibility to the upper echelons. Though he noticed that with the more time that went by, people seemed to relax more. Of course, more than 50 years had passed from the first incident to the second, so one could look at that attitude with a jaundiced eye. His phone rang, and he picked it up. "Col. Tolner, Assessment Team."

"Col. Tolner, this is Sheriff Valenti in Roswell. Congratulations on your promotion."

"Thank You, Sheriff. I take it you have something for me. I hope the results are slightly less important than they were last time." Tolner knew the Sheriff had been keeping tabs on things and had realized that something big went down the last time. The fact that he had never tried to pry was a positive mark in the book for Tolner.

"Unfortunately in some respects, and maybe fortunately in others, this one is a lot bigger. I need to see you ASAP."

Tolner sat up straight at that. The Sheriff was not one to cry wolf. If he thought it was big, it could very well be huge. "How soon is ASAP, Sheriff?"

"Can you make it to Roswell by 9AM tomorrow?"

"Yes I can. Should I have anyone else with me?"

"Probably not a bad idea. You might need verification and support for your report."

Tolner thought hard at that. Clearly the sheriff was saying he was going to be shown something really big. And might need evidential support to make sure his superiors believed him.

"OK, I will bring two people with me and some recording instruments."

"Sounds good to me. See you tomorrow at the same place as usual."

Tolner put down the phone and thought furiously. He knew who he would take with him; also instruments and video and audio recording equipment. He then picked up the phone to inform higher command that something was again up in Roswell.

The Sheriff was waiting south of town near the site of the Crash. It's where he always met the Major (now Colonel). A non-descript beige van with US Government Plates pulled up with the Colonel at the Wheel. The Sheriff walked over and told him, "It's not too far. Just follow me." The Colonel nodded.

The Sheriff parked at the pod site. He watched as the Colonel carrying a sniffer of some kind followed by a Captain with a video camera and a Lt. with another instrument of some kind walk up to him. He led them up the side of the hill to the pod chamber.

Tolner stared at the pods. After all these years, they had been found. He and the other officers went all over them. After about half an hour, they felt they had taken all the pictures and readings that were needed at the moment. Tolner turned towards the Sheriff. "You said big, and you were NOT exaggerating. We have been looking for something like this for more than 50 years."

The Sheriff had a strange smile on his face. "Colonel, this is just the window dressing. The big one is yet to come." The colonel and other officers looked at each other, then at the sheriff.

The Granolith had been able to put up an illusion of a wall. It now dropped it.

The officers started as the wall opposite the pods disappeared to uncover another chamber where a young woman stood. She was about 5'3", maybe 110 lbs, blond and quite pretty. Probably in her mid to late 20's.

"My name is Courtney. I originally came from a planet near the ones that these pods came from. I was part of the group that you wiped out 3 years ago. I escaped and found my way here. By pure luck, I met the other aliens who came from those pods. Despite the fact that we had been on opposite sides of a 50 year long civil war, we made peace with each other. And they eventually helped me transform from my former being into one like them. Their planet is called Antar. It's part of the Pegasus system out on the Orion Arm about 15,000 light years from earth. The four in those pods had been sent here to grow up in safety and then return to overthrow the dictator that had murdered their predecessors. My group was sent to stop them. Obviously failing. The pods were NOT supposed to take as long as they did—they were supposed to come out only 10 years after the crash—instead it was 40 years. They are gone now, back on their home planet where 3 years ago they did overthrow the dictator and set up a constitutional Monarchy. I guess I am the only actual Alien on Earth right now—at least as far as we know. I have friends and family here now. I consider Earth my home."

Tolner had listened, fascinated. The Captain had been recording the whole speech. The Lt. was using his instrument but looked at the Colonel and shook his head—he was getting no strange energy readings.

Courtney looked at the Colonel. Then put out her hand at a rock sitting on the ground and made it into a Potted Cactus about 3 feet high.

Tolner stared—fascinated. The Lt. spoke "Just got a strong reading on the scale—definitely a strange energy spike." Tolner walked over to the plant and touched it. It felt real and looked real.

He turned toward the young looking alien—which was clear that that was what she was.

"Why are you contacting us now?"

"Well things were going fine on Antar until just recently. Which I guess one should expect—good times do not last. Are you aware of the term Extinction Level Event, or E.L.E.?"

Tolner nodded slowly. "That is a meteor or comet strike or some other event that wipes out all life on a planet. Or at best severely changes it. The meteor that hit the Caribbean and caused the dinosaurs to die out is considered one of those. Are you saying that one is heading towards Antar?"

"Actually, a rogue Dwarf Star moving at almost 1/3 light speed. We think that about the time the civil war started over 50 years ago, there was a Nova in a system about 18 light years away. It was a binary system, and we think this dwarf star got tossed and just decided to head our way. It will miss the son of the Pegasus System but will destroy two of the four inhabited planets. Unfortunately, the two planets that will be fine—one of which was my former home world—have atmospheres that are not capable of supporting Antar's and Granular's people—who are pretty much human with a few additional powers. And none of the other planets that we have discovered over the last few years that we had started to look for again are viable. There are 400 million people on those two planets that will die in 3 years unless we evacuate them. There is only one planet that they can go to at this time."

Tolner slowly nodded. Now he got what the Sheriff had meant. To say this was big was the understatement of the millennium.

"So they have to come here. How are they going to transport 400 million people in 3 years?"

"They are already frantically building the ships. We do just BARELY have enough time to get it all done. It's going to be tight and nothing big can go wrong. But the real problem is of course the reaction of the people on Earth to 400 million aliens showing up. That is why we are here—to start the process to find a way to make it work."

Tolner took a deep breath. "Well needless to say, I have to get back to HQ and start the process of going up the chain of command. They are going to want you in custody, you know."

Courtney nodded. "And I think you can guess that I will not come peaceably and be poked prodded and maybe dissected all in the name of National Security."

Tolner nodded. He could certainly see her point of view and could frankly see that happening. There were some pretty hard types that would have no problem ordering it.

"I take it you will be gone pretty quick after we leave?"

Courtney nodded. "We have the capability to transport by energy beam. Sort of like the transporters on Star Trek. I will be on Antar pretty quickly after this meeting. We can communicate though."

At that point a device materialized beside her. It was about the size of a desktop computer—dark and square. The Granolith had suggested this. "This device will allow you to receive communications from Antar. It does not have the power to generate its own transmission—it is a receiver that, when the connection is made, can transmit. Every day for the next 5 days at 9 AM Roswell time, it will be activated. Of course once the conversation starts, arrangements can be made for other times—this was done in case the decision to talk gets wrapped up in red tape."

Tolner nodded. Then Courtney smiled at him and disappeared.

The Lt. then said, "When the device appeared, I got a much larger spike. When she disappeared, it went off the scale."

Tolner looked at the sheriff. "They are going to want to talk to you for certain, Sheriff. And I hate to say it, but they will be looking for your family and friends as well."

The Sheriff nodded. Pretty much what he had expected. "My Family has already been taken away, and so have all those close to the others who were here. For the record, I can give you their names and such."

Tolner nodded as well. "Well we might as well start. Let's head back to town, and I have to report in. This place will be crawling with techies and everything else by noon."

Duncan and the others had been listening in in Seacouver. He switched off the transmitter and looked at the others. "I think it might be a good idea to be away from town for a while. Joe, can you arrange for some watchers to keep an eye on things—very carefully? Just to see if they show up here looking."

"No problem Duncan. Already know who I am going to use. They are experienced and good."

Col. Tolner found himself pulled in several different directions right away. First, he sent word up the chain of command, and then furnished a secure copy of the video that was taken straight to DC. Then he started the techies towards the chamber, which of course meant sealing off the area and bringing in MP's and so on. Then he took down the Sheriff's statement. That was very interesting. The Sheriff had decided to put it all out there and told Tolner everything—which took several hours. Tolner was astonished at how much had gone on without anyone finding out. He told the Sheriff that a lot of security types were going to be green with envy at his ability to keep this all quiet.

One thing the Sheriff had decided was that the Immortal part would NOT be told. There was no real reason—Max and Liz had just dated, and the rest of them became involved and so on. No need for any Immortal Details.

Colonel Williams was a veteran CID investigator of more than 20 years experience. But this one was so far beyond anything that he had ever imagined that his head was spinning. He had just been briefed in by Col. Tolner that the Roswell Crash had happened, and that there had been aliens on the planet for more than 50 years. It had been decided that for the moment, CID would be lead investigator instead of the NSA since it was hoped they would be less conspicuous. He shook his head, then went to brief in his staff. They were supposed to turn over Roswell with a fine tooth comb and find out everything possible. Though he wondered how much they would find—clearly the Sheriff had done a good job of covering things up, and they already knew his family and the families of the teens who had gotten involved with the Aliens had left already. But they still had to do their jobs.

Major Grissom had a wedding picture in his hands. It was of Elizabeth Parker and Maxwell Evans. Right away after they got the name of those involved, the work of digging out photographs had started, and this one looked like the mother lode. The wedding party was pretty big and already they had identified the Sheriff and his family, the Evans, Parkers, Whitmans. Now they had to see if they could find out who the others were. Since the ones already identified were not around.

Col. Tolner had been summoned to the Pentagon to give his formal report. As he walked into the room, he was not surprised at how much rank was there. The Joint Chiefs of Staff, SecDef, the President's National Security Advisor, the heads of the FBI and CIA and NSA, and the Head of Homeland Security. He took a deep breath and began.

"You have all seen the video of the meeting yesterday with the purported alien. You have before you the initial analysis of the readings from the instruments we had there. Everything we have so far indicates that she was indeed an alien. The Cactus Plant she created has been already examined, and initial test results show that it is perfectly normal with no differences yet found from an ordinary one. So until and unless we find substantial evidence to the contrary, she is an alien."

The National Security Advisor had a question. "I see from the transcript that she was originally an enemy of the Roswell Group but in the end joined them, and she claimed she was transformed. Which kind of alien was she before?"

"The type that we destroyed three years ago. They were from a planet that had a methane dominant atmosphere and had to wear environmental suits to survive here. They were very sophisticated suits and were very heavily armored—it would take a direct hit from an AT-4 or tank round to destroy it. Or a hit from a thermite rd generating several thousand degrees of heat. Of course without a close examination, we cannot be certain of what she said, but at the same time, we do not have any evidence that conflicts with her statement."

"Do we have any verification of this Rogue Dwarf Star?"

"We have checked as much as we can so far—it will take time—but we think we can identify the System that went Nova in the time frame—at least I have been told that. We shall see. But considering the distances involved, I think we will know little more than that."

The Chairman spoke next. "So is this for real, or is it a cover for an invasion?"

Tolner knew he had to speak carefully.

"Sir, they have the technology to get here from there. That alone shows they are so far ahead of us technologically, it's almost pathetic. They do not need to use diversions or ruses. They can come here and take us down with no problem at all. Of course, it would be easier that way for them, but the outcome would be the same no matter what. It would be like a stone age tribe trying to fight Third Army."

The Chairman frowned but made no comment. The SecDef did. "I think no one here is under any illusion that we would have any realistic chance at resistance. This is not like Independence Day where someone with a laptop can take down a mother ship." That got a few tight smiles.

The NSA chief spoke next. "How is the investigation going on as regards Roswell?"

"Sir, we have debriefed the Sheriff who is the only one involved that we have. We have a wedding picture that probably has all the friends and families of those involved. But most of them are already gone, and so far, we have not been able to identify any of the others. I think we will in the next few days, but if they have not already left, they will be in hiding, and I doubt we would find them anytime soon. To be frank, I really doubt that the investigation will contribute anything that really matters."

The FBI head spoke. "We can dance around the real issue as much as we want, but let's get down to it. They are coming, and we cannot stop them. And since from their point of view, it's survival; you really cannot argue with their decision. So that is that. What we have to do is find a way to prevent mass chaos and panic. That means that we have to let the people of Earth know as soon as possible that there is intelligent life out there. They will need some time to come to grips with that before we drop the big one on them that 400 million alien refugees are going to be our guests for at least several years."

The NSA chief had some thoughts. "So do we have any idea what time frame we are looking at as regards their first arrivals?"

Tolner spoke. "The Sheriff said that they would first send ships with equipment and such to establish communities and shelter and the like—power plants and so on. Then the next wave would stockpile food and other supplies. The people would come last. They would be in over 100 ships the size of SuperCarriers and would be in pods—suspended animation—since that way they do not have to furnish facilities for the trip which will take almost one year. He made it clear that they wanted to be able to be fully self-sufficient for at least the first year as regards everything. And after that, only consumables and maybe food of some type. They do not want to be any drain on the Earth's resources. And he said they would be willing to negotiate as regards technological transfers, especially Medical and Energy advances."

That got the attention of the entire room. The Chairman was the first. "So are we talking about massive advances in those areas?"

Tolner spoke. "We have to assume so, General. I do know for certain that they must have incredible energy generating capability. No way they can move or even transmit over such distances at such speed without it. So we could be looking at the answer to all our energy needs."

The NSA chief mused. "That would actually be a pretty steep price for renting areas that few people live on today anyway. Considering the long term benefits of that for this planet, that alone would sway a lot of people. If we add major advances in medical technology as well, then there will be quite a few with welcome signs out."

The FBI chief had to put a damper on things. "But we have to face the fact that a lot of people today are still prejudiced, especially in the third world. And even if they do not look different, the fact is they are, and millions will react badly no matter what. We have to be ready for that."

The SecDef mused as well. "And we have not even got to the effect this will have as regards religions and the religious. No telling how well that will go down."

The Chairman had another thought. "Since all the area's identified are not in the US, the nearest being the Canadian shield, there will be those that think we made a deal to keep them out. I think it might be to our benefit to have some here as well. Since it's clear they are going to come no matter what, we might as well make the best of it. To me it seems that the Shield and the Australian Outback would be the best places for them. Of course, those countries might feel different. Now as regards Africa, there are not a whole lot of people there who would object, and nothing they could do about it if they did. So from that point of view, one could say that that area would be best."

The National Security Advisor spoke next. "Well, we need to tell the president. Then he is going to have to make the decision on who to tell next. And just how we are going to respond?" He turned towards Col. Tolner. "I understand that the transmitter will be useable at 11AM ET every day for the next five days?"

"That is correct, sir."

"Then I guess we need to move along. Does anyone here have anything more to bring up?"

Duncan and the others had gone to ground in Canada up at a ski lodge that Methos had once been to and had been abandoned but was still maintained to a certain extent. Duncan had arranged for the power to be on and basic utilities to be operational. But no one but they were there. They would be able to listen into any conversations the transmitter that the Government had made. It had been 3 days so far, and nothing had been said. Methos rather cynically said that they probably had not even agreed on how to even address Max and the others let alone any kind of substantial answer. Joe's people checked in every day by posting on a website so that no transmissions or phone calls could be traced. So far, no one had been nosing around the Dojo or any of their apartments.

Major Williams had been pretty much frustrated about identifying the other members of the wedding party. They had gotten the name Grace, but no last name; Adam Pierson, but he seemed to be a manufactured identity, so nothing there; then they had finally gotten lucky and gotten a full name with someone with a background: Joe Dawson. A Vietnam vet with an artificial leg. And a member of some kind of shadow organization—at least that was the feeling Major Williams got. Then he sent up enquiries on him, and suddenly red flags appeared all over. This guy was connected. He was also known to have been in the company of one Duncan McLeod, who also seemed to be well connected. Once they got those names, the others gradually came out. This group seemed to be concentrated in Seacouver for some reason. But they had made some trips to Roswell over the last few years.

The Watchers Council was again in emergency session. Joe Dawson was once again the cause. Very high level scrutiny. VERY HIGH LEVEL. He had then sent them the reason for it, and they were once more totally off balance. Aliens coming to Earth by the millions. They had to worry about the immortal secret coming out, but that was really small potatoes. On top of the truth about the quickening and the fact that Immortals could have children, the council was just completely out of it.

The next day on the website, the watchers relayed the information that all of their apartments and the Dojo had been entered and looked over. But it had been a quick in and out and not even thoroughly searched. It was almost as they had been instructed to just go through the motions. Joe thought that that was probably the truth; as things go, the group here were really not that important as far as the government was concerned.

Col. Tolner had been instructed to bring the Sheriff to DC to meet the president. Apparently, President Bush wanted to talk to him.

The Sheriff was a little nervous at meeting the president. He knew that this could be very important to how well, or not well, things turned out.

President Bush had never ever thought it would be up to him to tell the world that Aliens existed. He had talked to his father who probably knew more official secrets than anyone else and was shocked when he was told that as head of the CIA back in the early 70's, he had been briefed in on the Roswell incident. But no president since then had been. Of course, he had been told after the battle with the aliens, but it had been hoped that they could keep it secret. Well, that was out the window now. He wanted to talk to this Sheriff who had apparently known the families and the teens involved quite well. He felt he needed every bit of information possible if he was going to get this done correctly. *Two wars and everything else, and now I have to do this. Who in their right mind wants this job?*

The Sheriff was ushered into the Oval Office where it would be just him, Col. Tolner, and the President.

"Come in and welcome, Sheriff Valenti. Grab a seat. I think this meeting will probably take a while."

About 3 hours later, he left the Oval Office feeling pretty much wrung out and wrung through. The president had wanted him to start from day one and tell him everything. Keeping the Immortals out of it had been harder than he had thought, but he had managed not to slip up. Actually, that made it a much shorter story. But then the president spent the next hour or so asking questions and making notes.

After the Sheriff left, the President told his secretary to hold all calls for at least the next hour. And then he sat and thought. He a hunch that the Sheriff was still holding something back but had decided that the really important information had come out. *Those young people must be extraordinary to have accomplished what they had. At such a young age too. Well, I better get the rest of them in here to get the story.* He then told his secretary to arrange for an immediate emergency cabinet meeting and to make sure the Leaders of the House and the senate were part of it as well.

The Sheriff was sent back to Roswell and told to get back to work. The President countermanded the orders from the pentagon and told them to wrap up their investigation ASAP and stop bothering people. What they were doing now was not important.

Col. Williams was of two minds when told that the President had ordered the investigation halted. As an veteran investigator, he hated being told to stop before it was done, but he had to agree that what they could find out after this was pretty small potatoes and certainly not important enough to waste a lot of resources on. So he obeyed and got the word out.

Joe checked again and then decided to risk contacting the council. They told him that they had been assured that the investigation was ended. Just in time too. Apparently, the American President had decided that enough was enough. Joe then told Duncan and the others they could go home. Amanda was especially happy since there were no shops worth the name for miles around.

It was the fifth day when Max was told that the American Government wanted to talk. So he got everyone together to decide how to respond. When told by both Duncan and the Sheriff that the investigation had been ordered halted by the president, they agreed that the families would head back the next day.

Liz had been going over scenarios with Max and Michael and the rest on how to do this. Maria was of the opinion that as good as Max was at this, Liz was better. And the fact that they knew that Liz was of Earth origin (though of course not the rest of it) might make them feel better. The fact that she was Queen of Antar would be another plus. She recommended that Liz be seen with the Kids as well. Anything that made them look more human and normal. Max had to reluctantly agree, as all the rest of them thought it was a good idea. It was decided that they would both do it. Max leading off but letting Liz do most of it.

The transmitter was installed in one of the conference rooms in the White House. Present would be the President of course, SecDef, National Security Advisor, Sec State, Homeland Security, Attorney General, Vice President, Speaker of the House and House Minority Leader, and Senate Majority and Minority Leaders.

Next to the transmitter, an area of about 10 feet square had been cleared. At precisely 11AM, a young man materialized (or as it had been explained to the occupants of the room—a holographic transmission) with a young woman beside him. They both looked like they were at most 20.

"Greetings, Mr. President and company. I am King Maxwell of Antar and this is my mate and Queen Elizabeth, formerly Elizabeth Parker of Roswell New Mexico. We are broadcasting this from the Royal Palace on Antar in the capital city of Antaris. I have been told that you know all the details and what we need and the background and history of what has happened. We are here to answer any questions you may have."

The President stood up and walked close to the images. "Thank you, King Maxwell. I am told that your queen was the one who took down the dictator that murdered your predecessor. Is that correct?"

Liz answered. "Yes it is, Mr. President. I had gotten fascinated by swords and medieval warfare and had gotten a real sword as a present and had learned how to use if for real. As it turned out, that was a big advantage as Kivar thought he was an expert—turned out he was wrong."

That brought a lot of smiles to the room. Max could see the connection they were already forming with Liz, and once again thanked god for bringing her into his life.

Liz reached behind her and brought out Claudia, who had just celebrated her first birthday and was still cute as a button. Part of Liz hated making use of her this way, but she realized what was at stake.

The President was fascinated by the young child. The technology that made this transmission possible awed him. Real time from 15,000 light years away. The Secretary Of State walked up. Condi Rice was normally very careful about making snap judgments, but something about this young woman just made her feel at ease. "What is her name?"

Liz smiled. "Claudia, named after my grandmother on my father's side."

That really broke the ice, and the questions started coming in quick and varied.

Liz handled the technical questions.

"Antar has figured out how to harness solar energy at an efficiency level of close to 91%. The best that Earth can do now is about 14%. They have Fusion Reactors that are completely safe and self contained and do not emit any kind of radiation or waste. As regards Medical Technology, we have scanners that put Star Trek to shame. Genetic repair and DNA splicing that should cure most chronic diseases. I calculate that Earth would save in the first few years the equivalent of about 3 trillion dollars a year in medical expenses; and about 7-10 trillion dollars in energy expenses. And those savings would increase over time. So much of our money and resources now go towards those two areas—and the great percentage of that would be saved."

Those numbers totally blew away most of the occupants in the room. With Liz's charm and those cold hard numbers, the battle in this room was easily won.


	2. Chapter 2

"Posterity — you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it." —John Quincy Adams

Max and the others had discussed the situation and had come to the conclusion that it might be necessary for one or more of them to make a personal appearance on Earth in order to help smooth things over. Liz was of the opinion, and was supported by Tess, Isabel and Maria, that she ought to be the one. Max was not happy but Michael pointed out to him that Liz had a way with people and that was just the way it was. Alex had the thought that Courtney could go with her and give first hand proof of alien powers if necessary. Also since Courtney had once been an enemy that that would look good as well.

The President had informed the British Prime Minister, President of Russia, and the Premier of China first about what was going on. Needless to say their comments were rather pithy. The Russian president made it clear that Siberia was out as a place for the alien Refugees. He then notified the Australian and Canadian Prime Ministers since they were the most likely countries to end up as hosts. He felt that things had gone about as well as he could have expected, if not as well as he had hoped. Just after that had happened he was notified that Antar wanted to send a message. He had ordered that the transmitter have a 24 hr guard just for this reason. Even though it was almost 11 at night he went in with his National Security Advisor and got down to business.

Liz appeared in the room. "Good Evening Mr President- sorry to bother you this late at night."

"That is ok your majesty, I was up anyway. Just finished talking to the Australian and Canadian Prime ministers. They are somewhat skeptical to say the least as regards giving permission. The Russian President flatly has rejected Siberia. No real surprise there. There really is no one to talk to as regards the part of Africa you are interested in. If things keep going this way that might be the only place you can go."  
"This does not exactly come as a surprise Mr President. However we have been talking at this end and feel a personal visit by one of the Royal Family could very well help to grease the skids somewhat."

"That is a very good idea. Who do you have in mind?"

"I will be coming along with Courtney. She will serve to show that aliens are real since I am human."  
"I frankly was going to suggest it be you, Your Majesty, since you have the touch of connecting with people."

"Thank you, Mr President. When do you think this visit should happen?"

"As soon as possible – its just a matter of time before this leaks out to the public and we need to get the governments in favor before that happens. I would suggest the Canadian Prime Minister first and then the Australian. I will make the arrangements and get back to you. The 5PM daily system seems to be a good idea as regards keeping contact."

"Sounds good to me. We will check in at 5PM each day. Good Night, Mr President."

"Good Night, your Majesty."

Work on Antar, Granular and on the asteroids had been stepped up to a feverish pace. The Granolith had delivered the promised designs and construction acceleration suggestions and most of them had been put in place. After some initial panic and hysteria, people on both worlds had managed to settle down and get to work. The knowledge that they had 3 full years helped most accept it. Everything outside of basic daily needs such as food and energy were suspended in order for the workers and resources to be used in building the ships and the pods. The scout ships were still looking but so far nothing promising had been found. This part of the galaxy was rather short of M class planets. Even for those fast ships, getting to the farther systems took time.

Liz had decided to practice her KATA while she waited to see if the message came the next day as regards visiting Earth. It relaxed her and she needed it. Max was under enormous pressure already and it would only increase. She realized that relaxing him and getting him to unwind would be one of the most important things she could do in the next few years as the deadline approached. She quickly realized that the lack of practice showed and did it three times before she felt she had done it correctly. She was breathing heavily and wiping her face with a towel when the Granolith announced that the connection was made and the President was waiting. She tossed the towel aside and told the Granolith to proceed- forgetting she was still holding the sword in her hand.

The President saw Queen Elizabeth appear- and she was holding a sword in her hand.

Liz looked down and groaned. "Sorry Mr President. I was practicing and forgot I was holding my sword. "

The president smiled. "That's quite all right, your Majesty. I was interested in what kind you had ever since I heard the tale of the battle with Kivar."

"Its basically a cut down Katana, made by an old sword master in Japan. He sent a note with it saying he felt it was his best work of his life. He has since passed away- this was one of the last ones he made."

"It's a beautiful sword. Yet clearly its also made to work as well as look good."

"It has served me well, Mr President. I take it that you have been able to make arrangements?"

"We have. Is tomorrow too soon?"

"Tomorrow is fine. The Canadian Prime minister first I recall?"

"Yes. The Sheriff of Roswell has donated his transmitter and its on its way to Toronto now. The time set is for noon ET."

"Sounds good Mr President. Courtney and I will be there."

"Good Night, your Majesty."

"Good Night mr President."

The next morning was a busy one as Courtney and Liz got ready. Richie was not really happy about Courtney doing this but she squashed his objections right away. Max was also not really happy about it but was smart enough to keep his mouth shut.

The Canadian Prime minister was still trying to come to terms with what had happened. This visit would go a long way in deciding how it would turn out.

Liz and Courtney appeared in the room off of the office of the Prime Minister. The journey was as usual a little disorienting but both of them shook it off and looked around.

The Prime Minister admitted to himself that he had not really truly believed until the two young women just appeared out of thin air right in the building and right in front of him.

"Good Morning Mr Prime Minister. I am Queen Elizabeth of Antar, and this is my lady in waiting Courtney Williams. We bring you greetings and good wishes from the people of the Pegasus System and personal greetings from King Maxwell."

The Prime minister noted that the Queen was wearing a sword while her lady in waiting appeared to be unarmed. He had been briefed on the fact that the Queen was apparently a noted swordswoman. She was brunette and petite, while her lady in waiting was also petite though not as small and blond.

"Honored we are to meet you, Your Majesty. Greetings and good wishes from the people of Canada. Even if they do not yet know it. Rumors are starting to circulate but most ignore or disbelieve them. But it is only a matter of time before the news does get out."

"That is why we believed that this meeting was important, Mr Prime Minister. To put a personal face on the aliens that are coming."

"I understand you are human and that your lady in waiting was at one time your enemy and a different race but is now the same as other Antarians?"  
Courtney answered. "Yes that is true Mr Prime Minister. Allow me to demonstrate. "

Courtney turned to a chair and put out her hand. The chair turned into a Wooden Indian -Cigar Store Model.

There were gasps in the room and some babble behind the Prime Minister who was a little shook but had been prepared by the American President telling him the story of the Cactus Plant.

"Well that certainly does take care of anyone questioning that fact. Please leave it as it is. It will make a fine conversation piece."

Liz then stepped forward. "We are prepared to answer any questions you might have Mr Prime Minister."

"Well we certainly have a few. Let us sit down and discuss things."

Two hours later Liz and Courtney left feeling that real progress had been made.

After they left the Prime Minister turned to his cabinet and asked for input.

The general consensus was in favor of the situation- especially since the technology transfers would have such a huge economic impact. The real problem might be selling the people on it- but it was felt that more appearances by Queen Elizabeth would be most helpful.

The next day they visited the Australian Prime minister and felt that they had made similar progress.

Meanwhile as the Canadian Prime Minister had said, rumors were getting out and more and more of them. It was reaching a point where the story would have to be told. President Bush had decided to make the speech the next Monday, which would be 2 days off.  
The Networks and other media had been told there would be a special presidential address Monday night. There would be no advanced text available. That naturally got them speculating. The increasing rumors about Aliens was interesting, but was still doubted by most. Most thought that something about the wars was the most likely subject- and many began to speculate that Osama Ben Laden had either been caught or more likely killed. That particular idea began to dominate and some speculation about increased military presence in Iraq also won converts.

At 9 ET the President came on. The BBC had been tipped off by the government to tune in and broadcast it live. That word leaked and more and more networks around the world tuned in as It became clear that this was something big. By the time of the address it was estimated that the world wide audience was over 1 billion, perhaps as many as 2 billion.

"People of the world, not just my fellow Americans, a question that has been asked for many years has been answered. We are NOT alone in this galaxy. Actually a small segment of the US Government has known this for over 50 years. The famous Roswell, New Mexico Incident was true. A ship from another part of the galaxy crashed there. This was mostly covered up under National Security Laws in effect at the time. While parts of the ship were found and two alien bodies also were located, it turned out that one survived and escaped. That alien managed to move 4 life support pods carrying infants to a cave nearby that the military despite extensive searches never found. Those pods contained infants of the Royal Family of Antar, a planet out in the Orion Belt almost 15000 light years away. There were sent here to hopefully grow up safely and one day lead their people in a revolution to overthrow a dictator named Kivar who had murdered the Royal Family to prevent them bringing in democratic reform. However the crash and as it turned out sabotage by another alien who was supposed to help protect and teach them caused the pods to malfunction- they were supposed to bring the children out at the age of 6 ten years after the crash. Instead the pods remained dormant for almost 40 years. In 1990 they finally hatched 3 of the Royal Family. The Fourth came out some months later. 2 of them were adopted by a couple in Roswell. One fell into the child welfare system and was unfortunately placed in a bad home. However that young one still managed to grow up to be a caring person. The fourth was taken by the traitor. The children all grew up and in 2001 they began to meet those who would become their partners in life. There will be more details released soon. Alongside the chamber where the pods were left later on was located a very powerful machine that was a combination power source, computer, library and transportation device called the Granolith. The Royal Four, as they are known on Antar, had all reunited in 2001 because of one human, and her name is Elizabeth Parker. Or I should say was her name. Now she is Queen Elizabeth of Antar. She arranged for the traitor to be found out, the fourth Royal to rejoin the other three, and they together found the Granolith. It transported them back to Antar where they quickly defeated Kivar and freed their planet. Queen Elizabeth personally defeated and captured Kivar, who ended up with her sword at his throat. King Maxwell of Antar carried out the promise of his predecessor and turned Antar into a constitutional Monarchy as was promised more then 50 years earlier. And all this done by teenagers not even old enough to vote. Who says youth is wasted on the Young? In the next few days the King and Queen of Antar will visit earth to be presented to the world. There is much more to come but I think that is enough for now. Good night and god bless you all."

Well to say this stirred things up is to say the Pacific Ocean is wide and Deep. The media went nuts; protests (most of them not knowing what they protested) sprang up world wide. People were telling each other that they knew all along that we were not alone. All roads leading to Roswell became jammed with rubberneckers- who were turned away by MP's on all roads at least 20 miles away from Roswell. In Roswell the crashdown was immediately mobbed by locals but Jeff and Nancy had been warned at what was coming and had already closed it. They and the Evans and the Whitmans as well as Amy had all gone to the House- it was the one place no one would think to look for them. The Military had offered to get them out of town but they decided to stay. However Col Tolner had a unit parked nearby just in case.

World wide the impact was enormous. People congregated in parks and malls and street corners and city streets. They talked and rejoiced, screamed and shouted. Work stopped virtually everywhere. What became literally a world wide holiday spread everywhere. Government leaders were bombarded by questions. When had they known? How much had they known? The British Prime Minister made a short announcement that he had only been informed a few days ago. The Canadian Prime minister created another sensation by announcing that Queen Elizabeth had made the rounds of some leaders and he had been one of them. But he would not say who else had been visited. The Australian Prime Minister admitted that they had been visited as well. Immediate speculation began to center on why them and not others. The US Government simply said no more would be announced until the next day. Then details of the Royal Four and their human mates would be fully revealed. Though of course with the revelation about Elizabeth Parker the Roswell TV stations were able to identify Maxwell Evans as her husband/mate. Pictures of the Wedding were broadcast world wide. And the maids and matrons of honor as well as the male attendants were quickly identified. So Isabel Evans, Alex Whitman, Maria De Lucca, Tess Harding, Kyle Valenti, and Michael Guerin were immediately added to the vernacular of the world. Diane and Phillip Evans, the Whitmans, Amy De Lucca, and Jim Valenti were penciled in as well. The Sheriff was holed up in his office. With lots of the local media camped outside. The other names of those in the wedding party were scrutinized but not immediately found out.

In Seacouver they had all watched the presidents address. Methos wondered how long it would take before they were found out. Duncan had to agree and suggested that they probably ought to head back to the ski lodge for a while. They left late that evening. Courtney had just gotten back with Richie and Angie and of course went along as well. Just as they left the wedding picture was broadcast and Amanda said they had better get a move on since Duncan would be recognized pretty quickly by someone in Seacouver. She was right. Only an hour after they left the first of the media arrived at the Dojo. Soon to be joined by literally hundreds of others.

Max and the rest of them were able to some extent monitor what was going on. The Granolith tapped into the satellite feeds and was actually very interested in the world wide reactions. Liz was a little worried about their families in all that frenzy but after contacting the house they were glad to know that their families were not where the media was. Liz was also a little embarrassed by how much attention the president had given her, and too much credit as far as she was concerned. Interestingly it was Michael who told her that without her none of this would have happened so the President got it exactly right.

Nothing lasts forever, not even the revelation about aliens and the sensation that followed. The White House the next day released the names of all involved which had already been found out by the media so people were disappointed there was not more. The TV people were still hunting the families in Roswell but had been unable to find them and were thinking that they had already left town. They had not – were still at the House- but they started looking elsewhere. The MPs had been told to ease off on the roadblocks and Roswell was packed but the initial frenzy had diminished. People just are not able to keep at such a high point of tension, anxiety, anticipation, whatever; sooner or later they just have to take a rest. While it was still a sensation, by the third day it was starting to subside and people were starting to ask intelligent questions. One that seemed to be most compelling to many is why now. Why had it been let out now? What was the reason?

The relatively few people who KNEW why now were doing their very best to keep it quiet and so far had succeeded. The plan had been to get out the basic announcement and then let people get used to it; to wait as long as possible before the grand piano got tossed out of the top window. Because they all knew that the second announcement was going to be the really big one. It was one thing to show that aliens existed and they had visited earth; most educated people believed that aliens probably existed and believing that they had visited earth was not that much of a further leap. Finding out that 400 million were coming to camp out for a few years was a whole different thing.

On Antar it had been a short time since they had found out and everything was still in the planning faze. The designs for the ships were already in use and it was a matter of expanding the ship yards in orbit and building more shipyards. Factories were already being converted to building pods- the machinery needed for that had to be built and that would take a while. Designs were ready but nothing happens overnight. People were starting to get over the initial panic and shock and were getting down to the nuts and bolts of making the plans work.

Liz had made the point at the last meeting that maintaining some semblance of normalcy was very important. They had three years to get through and you could not keep everything going on as an emergency for that long. It was a marathon and to win one you need to figure out the best pace; it was not like a sprint. The initial idea had been to stop production of everything except for food and basic essentials and Liz argued that that was a bad idea; people had to live and at least get some enjoyment out of life or they burn out or quit. What was needed was a plan to figure out what was needed and how to make sure they had enough when they needed it plus a reserve. And then anything left over would be used to try and keep things going as normal as possible. Children still needed to attend school; other facets of a modern society had to keep going. Entertainment, sports, etc. Now not all could keep going; some would have to be curtailed or cut altogether; but the idea was to keep as much of it going as they could.

The White House was deep into talks with both the Australian and Canadian governments. President Bush made it clear that the US was also willing to take in a large number if necessary. The point was made that when they left whatever area they had occupied would now be developed and available for use, which was a lot more then could be said about those areas at the moment. They all knew that the public reaction could be very bad, and that all efforts must be made to handle it. The debate was about whether to have the Royals visit BEFORE the announcement of what was really coming, or after. The problem with before is that it would be clear quickly that everyone had known and that it was all a stage show to make people accept them before the big news. That could turn the public against it all. On the other hand a visit afterwards would have tremendous pressure and consequences since it would all come down to how well they were accepted. The general consensus was that it was better to have the announcement first; better to be up front and straight with the people as it would engender less distrust and suspicion. After several days of debate it was agreed that that was the best way to go. Now how to do it.

Max had gotten the message from Earth that they thought it would be better to let it all out before their visit rather then so obviously be seen trying to manipulate public opinion the other way. He and the others had come to that same conclusion. The big decision now was who was going to make the announcement. Should it come from Earth or Antar? Or should they try a joint announcement? Liz thought that spreading it around would be better. The world would see all the leaders together with the Royals so it would look much more cooperative. Liz also thought that they sould make the point that they had scout ships still looking for alternatives and that that was still possible. So that it could not be said that this is the way it is going to be no matter what. They would give details of the other planets and why they had to be rejected.

Lord Lanar had been hard at work ever since the first message from Max about the Rogue Dwarf Star. After a short while of just being stunned, he had shook it off and got down to the nitty gritty. Granular only had 1/3 the population of Antar, so relatively speaking it would take less for them to leave. And since Granular had only been on the fringes of the war without being heavily involved they had less trouble retooling and concentrating on what needed to be done. He was worried about the reaction that the people of earth would have, but so far it had gone OK. He felt that the Royals were almost perfectly suited to make this – what had Max called it- "sales pitch". Still it was a very tense time and some on Granular resented the fact that it was Antar taking the lead and apparently making all the decisions. Lord Lanar had stepped on that very quickly by pointing out that they had done exactly what needed to be done and what other choice was there? There were no other viable options.

The suggestion for the joint conference/meeting was received with interest back on Earth. The governments chewed it over and examined it and finally agreed that that was probably the best option. Bring all the major leaders together and have the Royals show up and then make the deals and announce it right afterwards. They all knew this had to happen soon before the reason for all this leaked out. President Bush was amazed that it had not so far; usually any government leaked like a sieve. After talking with the British Prime Minister, French President, German Prime Minister, Russian President, Chinese Premier and some others, they had all agreed to come to Sydney Australia for the world wide conference. Since from all appearances more aliens would be going to the Outback then anywhere else the Australian Prime Minister had agreed that Sydney would be the best place for the conference. It was to happen in 4 days.

Word of the conference was quickly let out and that ramped up the media and everything else again. Especially when it was also announced that the Royals would be attending. Speculation immediately began about what it was all about. The Stated purpose was generally getting to know them, the beginning of trade talks, and other major concerns. The major concerns part was not elaborated on. The media and blogs and the lot did plenty of speculating on everything anyway. Even though it had only been a week since the Aliens Coming Out Party had happened, a great many people had already started to just accept these new facts as part of their day to day lives. This beginnings of acceptance was noted with relief on the parts of many in the know.

At the big meeting on Antar that had Lord Lanar and his representatives present it was debated about how to go about the process for getting the People of Earth to accept 400 million aliens showing up. It was unanimously agreed that Max and Liz would be the only two to go- a suggestion that others come had been shot down by the realization that some of them needed to stay here and that really what could they add. Also the fewer of them there the less likely there would be of someone making a big mistake and saying something they should not. The rest of the group pointedly looked at Kyle and Maria at that. They immediately protested but were ignored.

Liz had been thinking virtually non stop about how this should be done for days now. Max had quietly told her that he trusted her to be the lead on this. And the fact that she was from Earth, a human, would make it better as well coming from her. Of course he would have to sign any treaties or agreements, and as King would be highly visible, but he was relying on Liz to really get it done. He had told her that he felt very guilty about all this- and she had cut him off telling him that it made sense and was the logical way to go. She then made the decision to bring the children as well. She had to make the people of earth see that there really was no fundamental difference between them. That would be the key to being accepted. Earth's first view of them would be of Max holding Phillip and Liz holding Claudia. First impressions were always critical.

Duncan and the rest of the Seacouver crowd had decided to remain out of town- while the investigators were gone there were still literally hundreds of media types swarming the Dojo and other places that they had frequented. Amanda was getting restless and that was never a good thing. So far their identities had held up and no awkward happenings from any of their pasts had come up. The media was speculating just how the seacouver crowd got to know the roswell aliens- the Watchers had been able to cover up the clinics connection (or more to the point lack of connection officially) to Duncan Mcleod. That had worried Joe but so far they had been able to bury it and as each day went by it seemed less and less likely that it would come out. Methos had suggested that maybe it would be a good idea for it to get out that Duncan had trained Liz on sword play and had been the one to get her her sword. And that was how the connection started. After kicking that around for a couple of days it was agreed on and Duncan had contacted Randi McFarland, who was still working on a TV station in Seacouver but was now an anchor. He had agreed to give her a short interview. She had of course jumped on it. She knew that Duncan had some very interesting connections so was not particularly surprised about him and Aliens. When they met she tweaked him about that. The interview went well and was an immediate sensation. Duncan had admitted that they had known that Max and the others were aliens but they seemed just like regular teenagers (who were known to be fairly strange just on general principles). This also helped in the general acceptance of aliens that was slowly becoming widespread. Liz contacted Duncan after the interview was broadcast and thanked him for helping out. He pointed out that it was a way for them to try and get back to some kind of normal life for themselves. One thing was certain- it was going to be hard for anyone to challenge them with all the media hanging around.

Duncan had contacted Connor with the word on what was going down. Connor was bemused about it all to say the least. Duncan had told him some time ago about the possibility of having children. Connor had told Duncan that it was about 400 years too late for him. Heather had been the only woman that Connor had ever truly loved. And the only one that he had ever wanted to have children with. What he was not to know was that was about to change.

Rachel McLeod had been watching the developments with great interest, especially when Duncan McLeod had been mentioned. She knew he was much more then he seemed; somehow he had been reincarnated or something- she knew that for a fact. She remembered when he had talked about his cousin Connor. She had been able to find out that he had been banished from his clan supposedly for witchcraft- coming back from the dead. While it was more rumor and legend then anything of substance, Rachel believed it. She had seen too much over the years to not. The fact that Connor was his cousin greatly interested her- and since she had decided to take a quick vacation to New York she decided to visit him and see what he was like.

Connor was checking the latest purchase in his Antique Shop; Racheal had already entered it into the shops computer. Connor still did not like dealing with computers- something that tickled Racheal endlessly and she never let him forget it. He wondered what he would do when she passed on. She had been a constant in his life for over 50 years; only Heather had been with him as long. Duncan's revelation about being able to have children had shaken him a lot more then he had let on. It was an ache in his soul that he had had for over 400 years. He knew he had a tendency to brood; but he felt he was entitled to it. He envied Duncan's easy way of making friends and the fact that even before the revelations he had managed to gather a group around him. Connor had always been a lone wolf- after Heather and Ramirez he had never really let anyone get too close to him. It hurt too much when they died or he had to leave. He looked up as the door bell jingled and someone came into the shop. He walked down the stairs to see who it was.

Rachel McLeod looked around the antique shop- it was certainly very high class. She could tell that much. She looked up as someone came down the stairs.

A young woman, dark haired, slender, with piercing blue eyes looked up at him. He immediately knew that she was from the Highlands. He was not sure how but he knew.

Talk about tall and well not dark but certainly handsome. And the way he moved- it was much the same way as Duncan did. Smoothly, like a big cat of prey. This had to be Connor McLeod.

"My name is Connor McLeod and I own this store. May I help you?"

My name is Rachel McLeod and I come from the Highlands. I know your cousin Duncan. I was curious to see if you are like him. And I think you are."

Like him? Did she know about Immortals? "And how am I like Duncan? We talked once about his trip back to the old country. He mentioned that you keep an Inn not far from where the clan began."

"Not sure what it is but there is something the same about both of you. Outside of being Scots and McLeods."

So she does NOT know about Immortals. Which is probably a good thing.

"How long are you in New York?"

Max and Liz prepared very carefully for the trip. Their initial appearance would be critical and how to dress was very important. Isabel had gone through their wardrobe and had made some choices as regards formal wear and public appearances. Liz had decided that they would also take jeans and T-Shirts and appear in them to show that they liked casual clothes as much as anyone else. Everything they did and said and dressed in would be looked over with a microscope by the world. So they had be make sure that nothing jarring or way out there would come out. Isabel pointed out that that was not likely since they were both rather boring people. She ignored the indignant glares from Liz and Max.

Finally it was time to go. As they stood next to the Granolith Liz just hoped that they could pull this off. So much depended on them. She felt she would rather take on a dozen headhunters. Well, one good thing about being Royal and having attendants and bodyguards and the like. It was going to be really hard for any Immortal to even get close enough to challenge her, let alone pull It off. It had been decided to take only 4 Antarian soldiers with them as bodyguards. And Liz had decided not to have any attendants with them. Courtney had tweaked her about not letting her "Lady in Waiting" go with her- and then Liz had asked if she really wanted to go. The look on Courtney's face answered THAT question.

It had been decided that a spectacular entrance would be a good move. So in front of the Sydney Opera House, on the square in front, is where they would appear. The worlds leaders would be gathered and they would appear right in front of them. The meeting would be in the Opera House.

Over 100 TV cameras and an untold number of other types were all focused on the square. The worlds leaders had gathered inside for a quick meet and greet. While originally there had only been a dozen, more had demanded to be there and the number had swollen to over 30. One-upmanship and regional rivalries had pushed that number even higher. By the day of the conference, there were 50 world leaders there. In a conversation with the US President, the Australian Prime Minister figured that in some respects that would be a good thing since first hand accounts by those leaders going back home should help increase the acceptance. President Bush had been a little more skeptical but was hopeful as well.

Then in a blink of an eye (that phrase got seriously worn out in accounts afterwards) Max, holding Phillip and Liz holding Claudia, and their 4 bodyguards, appeared out of nowhere. The image of what appeared to be a young couple holding their children flashed all over the world. And that image was critical- its hard to be suspicious of young families. Then two of the bodyguards stepped forward and Liz placed Claudia in a stroller, and Max placed Phillip in another. Then he reached for Liz's hand and they walked up towards the group of leaders. The Australian Prime minister moved up and greeted Max and Liz. "Greetings and Welcome to Australia, King Maxwell and Queen Elizabeth"

Max returned the greeting "Thank you for your hospitality, Mr Prime Minister."

"Allow me to introduce you"

Then Max and Liz went down the line greeting each leader. That took about 10 minutes. Then in an inspired decision Liz turned and went back and picked up Claudia and Max picked up Phillip and they followed the Prime Minister into the Opera House. Once inside they put the children back into the strollers.

Their clothes also engendered much attention. Max wore a blue flowing tunic and same color pants with black shiny shoes. It glinted and seemed to shimmer. Liz wore a classically cut semi tight dress with square neckline and hem to just below the knee, with a slight slit; and high heels. It was the same color and fabric as Max's, only on Liz it seemed to be more. Many commentators were taken with her beauty and youth, and when she carried Claudia, she looked perfectly natural doing it. It was commented again and again that the couple were only just past 20.

In the main hall of the Opera House a huge circular table had been assembled. It had been decided to make the seating alphabetical in order to assuage any hurt feelings or egos. Max and Liz sat next to the Australian Prime minister, and on the other side sat President Bush, for the US. The Prime Minister then stood up and made a prepared speech, greeting them all and welcoming them to Australia and the first conference made up of people from two different worlds. Max responded with a short speech in return. At that point Max then looked at Liz and sat down. She took a deep breath and stood up.

"As you all know I grew up in a small town in New Mexico. From the age of 12 I helped out in my parents café. Irony of ironies it was in Roswell, New Mexico. I am sure you have all seen, by now, pictures of me in the very tacky alien themed waitress uniform complete with antenna's. By the way I have since found out that as far as anyone knows at this point no race has been found to have antenna's. I met my future husband early in life but he was very shy (and for very good reasons as I have since discovered) and barely spoke to me until the end of my sophomore year in High School when we were assigned as lab partners in advanced Biology. Even then getting him to talk much beyond the work was not easy. Frankly it took me being shot to wake him up. A painful way to get it done but it was worth it. Max knew he was different but did not know why or how. And as we all know those that are different are all too often not treated well in this world. So it was understandable if he was quiet, shy and introverted. Not long after the shooting, we found out why he was different. I had always suspected that there was more to the Roswell Crash then the government admitted; having grown up there you would find a great many thought the same way. But that was all it was and it did not seem to matter except that it made a nice tourist business for the city and the merchants. Once we found out events just started to happen and we were scrambling to keep up. Suddenly I was being transported 15000 light years to another world. That was to Granular, neighbor to Antar. And in only a week we were incredibly lucky enough to end a civil war that had lasted more then 50 years. The three years that followed we spent rebuilding Antar and installing a constitutional monarchy. We had hoped to quietly let the Monarchy Part of it wither away and in a few years abandon it and thus we would be free. Unfortunately we kind of screwed that up and now the monarchy is more popular then ever. So Max is stuck being King and I am stuck being Queen for the foreseeable future. Especially now. For you see we have just in the last week or so found out that not all threats are personal or by governments or groups or even individuals. Sometimes nature decides to really stir things up." Here Liz paused to take a drink of water and then motioned for one of the Antarian bodyguards to bring forward what looked like a briefcase. She took it from him and placed it on the table in front of her. It was a holographic projection relay that the Granolith would use to project certain images. With the transport lock that Max had insisted stay on them at all times, the Granolith would be unable to just beam in an image. Liz opened it up and prepared it.

"What you are about to see is an image relayed from beyond the Pegasus System that Antar resides in. This is what was found by one of our scout ships."

In the middle of the large circular table appeared what looked like a sun with planets around it; it clearly was not earth. They then shrunk some; and a small sun was shown by itself not surrounded by planets.

"This is a rogue Dwarf Star. We believe it came from this system (a flash to a destroyed solar system) when the primary star went NOVA about 50 years ago. It was a binary system and somehow instead of destroying the other star it flung it free to send it careening through the galaxy. Here is its projected course." It was then shown flying through the Pegasus system to collide and destroy Antar and Granular. " IT is moving at an incredible speed for a natural body; almost 1/3 the speed of light. It will enter the Pegasus System in a little more then 3 years. Two of the four inhabited planets will be destroyed- Antar and Granular. If this was anything but a star we would be able to destroy it by breaking it up; but there is nothing we can do to a star." She paused as the stir ran through the leaders.

"Once we were informed of this by one of our scout ships we immediately started to look for other planets to move to. Here are the planets we have found:" She then showed each of the planets and why they were not useable. "Each of those planets for one reason or another is not a viable place to go. We have right now scout ships looking for other planets but so far they have found nothing. At this time there is only one stable, inhabitable planet with the right atmosphere for us to go to once our planets are destroyed. There are 100 million people on Granular; and 300 million people on Antar. We are at this time desperately building ships and getting things ready to leave. If nothing goes wrong we should be able to get everyone out before the planets are destroyed. The only place, the only planet, that we can go to right now is Earth." She stopped and then sat down, leaving the image of the Dwarf Star destroying Antar.

While some of the leaders there had already known, most had not. The hubbub was considerable.

At that moment the Australian Prime Minister stood up.

"The Government of Australia is amenable to allowing some of the inhabitants of Granular and Antar settling temporarily outback in Australia." He then sat down.

The Prime Minister of Canada stood up. "The Government of Canada is favorable toward allowing some of the refugees to temporarily settle in upper Canada, on the Canadian Shield."

President Bush stood up. "The Government of the United States will allow some of the inhabitants to settle temporarily in the United States."

The Russian President, realizing that he needed to appear strong and confident, stood up.

"The People of Russia will welcome some of the refugees to settle temporarily in Siberia."

Max and Liz looked at each other- that was certainly a change. They would have to figure out why.

There was silence for a few moments then Max stood up.

"On behalf of the people of Antar and Granular, I thank those nations for their help and room to stay for a while. I want to make it clear we are not staying. There are inhabitable planets out there that we can go to someday- it is just a matter of finding one. I believe that we will in the next few years. Once we have found one we will leave Earth. And in return we can help the people of earth. Our technology in energy production and other areas is very advanced; we will be able to help Earth generate clean and cheap energy, mostly from the sun. And we will come with enough food and supplies that we will be completely self sufficient for at least the first year and hopefully longer. Our ability to build interstellar ships can be used to help the people of earth mine the Asteroid belt; so that no more resources need to be taken from earth. We can greatly decrease the pollution that presently damages the ecology of earth; in this and many other areas we can help earth take a giant leap forward in progress."

At this point there was silence as everyone took this in. And then in a sign that Max swore showed that she would one day be a great politician, Claudia started to cry. Liz immediately went to her and picked her up and began to walk with her, looking just like any other young mother. The timing could not have been better.

The conference was being recorded and the Australian Prime minister gave the signal to the technicians to broadcast all of this to the world. It had been agreed upon if things went well that is the way the people of earth would find out that they were about to have guests. The last image the people saw was Queen Elizabeth holding her daughter.

The revelation that 400 million aliens were coming to visit exploded on the world and instantly drowned out everything else. Only a week after the secret about aliens came out, this tended to build on the hysteria of the first story. Needless to say the reaction was sharpest in the countries that had offered space for them. The fact that they would be going to the sparsest population areas of those countries was the only mitigating factor. The exception was the US where it had not been revealed where they would go. Though Alaska and parts of the southwest and parts of Montana and North Dakota were mentioned. Some commentators remarked on the irony of perhaps some of them ending up in Roswell.

Max and Liz spent the day talking to the leaders and then accepted the Australian Prime Ministers invitation to take a look at the Outback. First to Alice Springs then to Katherine then to Coober Pady. They flew fairly low over the area's so that they could get a good look at the land and terrain. Liz explained to the Australian Prime Minister that what they would do is bring ready to assemble housing units and support and utility containers- each city would be about 1 million and would need about 100 square miles. They believed that they could use the most arid and bare land areas; with the power units they could draw moisture out of the air and near the coasts they could set up desalination plants; and then they would be working to farm as much as they could. The whole idea was for each city to be self sufficient; to not need any assistance at all for the first year, and minimal aid after that. They had figured on having set up teams there the first year – and would have everything ready by the end of the second year in preparation for the refugees coming in the third year. The Prime Minister pointed out that the outback had some of the most infertile land anywhere short of a full desert. Max explained that agricultural technicians were already working on the problem and they thought that with a lot of work- labor intensive work- they could get decent crops. And that that would be another legacy they could leave after they were gone.

With the debate and all the sturm und drang going on it was felt that Max and Liz needed to do some interviews. So on the third day they did Australian TV, then Canadian and then the US Networks. They enquired about whether they needed to do Russian TV and were told that the Russian President did not think that necessary. He had been challenged by some of the opposition about his offer and that had naturally made him dig in his heels that much harder. He regarded it as a personal challenge and was busy beating on the opposition all around. Liz had figured that they needed to give more details on exactly how the settlements would be done and what effect they would have on the land and the regions. While at the same time emphasizing the technological improvements the countries would also be getting. And above all keep reminding everyone that this was only temporary.

On the fourth day they did more TV interviews then sat down with the print media. Max made it a point to say little since Liz was so much better at it. One of the print media then asked him about why he was so quiet. "I like to think I am smart enough to know when to keep my mouth shut. And this way I let my queen do the talking which she is so much better at." Another asked "Does the Royal Palace have a sofa for when the Queen gets mad at you. " "So far I have been very lucky and have not had to find out." "You mean you don't have fights?" "Of course we do. I just do my best to remember to say I am sorry regularly to help smooth things over. And then I find a problem that interests her and she forgets all about being mad at me." "Sounds like most marriages I have ever heard of" "We are just another young couple with children. Our particular problems are a little different then most peoples, but problems are problems."

Overall it was thought that things were going about as well as could be expected. There were still many months to go before the first advanced parties came. Max thought that given more time those making the most noise would settle down and those that did not would be a small minority.

After the fourth day, Max and Liz thought that they probably could leave and go back. The Canadian Prime minister though asked them to visit the areas of Canada that had be earmarked; he felt that it would go down better that way. So on the fifth day they boarded a Canadian Air Force Jet and flew to first Seacouver. There they were able to quietly see Duncan and the rest. Cassandra had come back and wanted to meet Liz. And see their children as well. That meeting was interesting to say the least. Duncan had told Liz that Cassandra had some psychic powers that he had never been able to figure out but that indeed were real. When Liz met her, she had this strange feeling that they had met before. Cassandra then told her of her dream. Liz realized that she had had the same dream. They compared notes. Cassandra believed there was a reason behind the dreams-that they shared some kind of connection. Liz agreed there was something but what could it be? Cassandra was over 2700 years old; and came from the oldest part of Europe. Liz was barely 20 and was from the New World. It would be hard to find two people more different. Cassandra mused that maybe that was the point. She held Claudia as she had held the other children of Immortals and wondered what it all meant. Liz suggested that just perhaps there was no profound reason – that maybe it was just examples of people living their lives as best they could. 


	3. Chapter 3

An interesting development began to come about after the first few days. Some of the poorer countries in Africa and Central and South America began to enquire into the possibility of having a few of the alien settlements in their countries. They reasoned that that would help them develop and progress. Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Angola, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Mauritania, Niger and Sudan in Africa; Uruguay, Paraguay, Guatemala, Honduras, Columbia, Bolivia, Peru in South and Central America. Each country volunteered for one of the cities; several of the bigger countries wanted two or three. Max was overwhelmed by this; they had vaguely hoped but had not really expected such widespread support. And this would help them further push Earth forward in progress; for it was in the poorest and least developed countries that the greatest difference could be made. Those were the countries that could not afford enough oil to really get their economies moving; and what oil they could buy had to come at the expense of infrastructure and education and health. The new power plants that they would be installing would completely make those countries independent of oil for power generation; and with the development of electrical cars and other transportation not dependent on oil a huge financial burden would be lifted. The major advances in health practices and medical technology would further lessen the burdens on their economies. And more advances in agriculture would allow them to be net exporters instead of importers.

All this of course would come at the expense of the oil exporting countries; the Middle East, Venezuela, Mexico, Nigeria, etc. Already speculation had the price of oil dropping as the future demand would certainly decrease. Those countries that depended solely on oil to support themselves saw a very big problem down the road. They found that there was very little sympathy for them elsewhere. Liz contacted the Granolith and ordered it to start studies on what each of those countries could do to move away from oil. Max suggested that they give power producing technology and the like to them so that they could start switching over and moving away from oil dependency. Liz felt that a sustained slowly expanding economy was the best way to go and plans had to be made to see that that happened.

With those countries showing willingness to host settlements, opposition began to collapse. What was left was xenophobic and nothing could really be done about that. Max pronounced that any country that wanted settlements would be given them and that they could have as many or as few as they wanted. While there the settlements would be subject to the Nations laws and regulations; and possible conflicts would be negotiated before they landed.

Liz had been keeping count of the countries volunteering and how many settlements they wanted. At the moment they had 60 requested for countries outside of Canada, Australia, the US and Russia. Plans were for 50 in the US and 50 in Russia, in Siberia. That left at the moment 240 to be split between Canada and Australia. That also helped ease things in those two countries since originally it had looked like they would be taking in 200 each; now it was down to 120 each and that would probably fall.

The work at building the ships on Antar had started to ramp up as the new yards were taking shape and the other yards were expanding. The first of the new design ships was already building and was expected to be completed in 3 months. The next one would be quicker as mass production of the parts and components was starting; it would take another 6 months to get all the factories going. They expected to have 20 ships done the first year; and 60 the next year; with 15 already built that left only 25 of the original required 120. Careful planning had shown that the first group would bring in the advanced work crews and equipment and materials; the first flight of 30 ships would have all that. The next group of 30 ships would complete the initial preparations and bring in all the necessary supplies. Then all 120 ships would gather together to evacuate the populations of Antar and Granular. The first 30 ships would make 3 trips; the next 60 two trips; the last 30 one trip. Max was actually hoping to begin evacuation using the last 30 ships of the second group; that would lessen the pressure on the last evacuation voyage. Tinkering with the ships engineering plants had shown that the risk of pushing them to make the trip in 9 months rather then 12 was minimal; that was what would allow extra trips by the first group of ships. There was confidence on the part of the building crews that they would be able to build more ships beyond the 120 but Max had decreed that all plans would be based on the 120 only; if they got more that would help and be a bonus; but they would NOT be counted on.

Liz had speculated that all the exposure to various types of governments combined with the spreading out of the Antarian people all over the planet might lead to less reliance on Max and the Monarchy. And that maybe, just maybe, by the time they found a new planet and settled on it, they could step away from the throne. Max told her it was a nice dream but that the monarchy might be clung to as a way to maintain their antarian status and that might be the same on the new planet. Liz countered that it was good to dream.

What came during the second visit to Canada was to have significant ramifications. After the first visit Max and Liz had gone back to Antar to rest up and keep an eye on preparations there. Some protests by Natives in Northern Canada worried the Prime Minister since he thought that they might build if not handled right. He suggested another visit by the royals. Max and Liz, this time not accompanied by the children, and after a little argument no Antarian bodyguards, arrived in Yellowknife. There they asked to meet representatives of the protestors, mostly Indian and indigenous people who had been there for many generations at the least. The small town hall was packed.

The meeting had gone on for about an hour and had progressed fairly well. The people there were worried about the wildlife that they hunted being pushed away be the settlements. Max assured them that they would be very carefully placed to interfere as little with the natural habitat as possible. He pointed out that the power plants and other facilities would be much cleaner running and would pollute very little if at all. The people were still worried about the changes but mostly accepted the fact that there would be. Max had gotten up with Liz and had moved to speak personally to some of the representatives when it happened. Liz as usual wearing her sword ( it had been early on expected and she basically just got used to always having it with her-besides she did her KATA at every opportunity-it relaxed, settled and centered her). She was beside Max when something drew her gaze to the right. A scruffy looking man, non descript otherwise, was looking at Max with pure hate in his eyes- sanity was lacking. Instinctively she put her hand on her sword and started to draw it slowly when the man jumped up and pulled out a gun screaming in some native language as he pointed it at Max. The RCMP's with them were not close enough but Liz was. Moving to stand between Max and the gun she drew her sword and with a fast but smooth motion cut off his hand- but unfortunately he was able to fire just before she did that- and the bullet hit her right in the chest. Max had been very much concentrating on what was being said and was slow to move; he was to blame himself for that for a very long time. He felt Liz slam against him and he caught her as she went down. The crazy man had already gone down under enraged locals. By the time the RCMPS pulled them off of him he had been beaten badly and had almost bled to death from his stump.

Max turned and bent over Liz placing his hand over her wound and calling for her to open her eyes. She was coughing blood and looked up at him and he was able to make the connection. Shaking from adrenalin and pure fear Max went inside to look for the wound. It had missed the heart but had ruptured the pulmonary artery and her right lung; which is why she was coughing up blood. He forced himself to concentrate and yelled at every one to back off and stay away. He pushed the tear in the artery closed and then worked on the lung. He could actually feel her quickening doing the same thing and forced himself to work with it and strengthen it. That worked and in only a few minutes she was healed. She blinked up at him and smiled. He bent down and carefully wiped the blood away from her face and mouth and then picked her up in his arms and told the RCMP's that surrounded him to get them away from here.

Needless to say word spread all over the world in only a matter of minutes. This was the third great wave of speculation and everything else though this time it was more limited and focused on one area. Accounts at first were partial and somewhat muddled; all that was known for sure was that an Assassination attempt had occurred as regards the Antarian Royalty. It was not sure if Max or Liz or both had been the target; they did not yet have the identity of the attacker. All that was known was that the Queen had used her sword and cut the hand of the attacker off but not before he fired a shot that hit her. Then the King had used his power and healed her and then picked her up and demanded to leave immediately.

Max had contacted the Granolith and ordered immediate transport. He then told the government representative that they would be in contact and was whisked away by the Granolith, still holding Liz in his arms.

Not 30 minutes later the Prime Minister was on the air and his broadcast was quickly relayed all over the world.

"My fellow Canadians and people of the world. A terrible act of violence was only minutes ago perpetrated on our soil to guests of Canada. Details at this moment are still incomplete but we do know this. Apparently a local citizen of Yellowknife used a handgun to fire at the Royal Party; Queen Elizabeth acted quickly placing herself between the gunman and the king, drawing her sword and cutting off the hand holding the gun. Unfortunately she was unable to do this before he fired, and the bullet hit her. As we know, some Antarians have the ability to heal by psychic means and fortunately King Maxwell is one of them; he was able to save the Queens life. They immediately left for Antar by instantaneous transport. The gunman is in the local hospital in serious condition; he was badly beaten by other locals enraged at his conduct. That and in addition to the cutting off of hand very nearly resulted in his death. A full investigation is underway and I intend to render a formal apology on the behalf of all Canadians to the Royal Family and Antar for this outrage. Hatred and fear are terrible things; and once again we have all too tangible evidence of the damage they can do."

The whole group was waiting for Max as he got back next to the granolith, still carrying Liz who was protesting that she was fine. He insisted in carrying her up to their room. He told the rest he would be out in a few minutes. The Granolith filled the group in on what had happened. Michael was kicking himself for relaxing on Max's security. The leader of the Antarian Royal Bodyguard made it clear that never again should any of the Royals leave without bodyguards. They all agreed that they had gotten lucky; even though her quickening would have probably healed her without her dying that could have raised questions that would have outed the Immortals. And if she had died that would have been a sure thing. Then they got a call from the Granolith saying Liz's parents were calling and wanted to see their child. Michael went up the stairs and knocked on the door. Max came to it asking what was so important and Michael told him. Next thing he knew both he and Max were pushed aside by Liz as she headed down the stairs telling them that she would talk to her parents right now. After getting a hug from Maria and Alex, Isabel and Tess she walked up to the Granolith and told it to contact her parents. Even though they knew that Liz had her full immortal status back the account of the shooting still terrified them and only a personal message from her would calm them down. Liz made sure that the Granolith worked fast by standing there tapping her toe, arms crossed and looking at the Granolith as if she was planning on a dismantling project. Within minutes it had established contact, and Jeff and Nancy were waiting.

"Mom, Dad, I am fine. I would have been anyway. My quickening is back to full strength. It was a good thing though that Max was seen to heal me. We do not want the immortality part to get out if at all possible. Actually in a morbid way this will help us gain full acceptance. The old saying that behind every cloud is a silver lining holds true here. Now the people of earth will feel that they owe us something. Now take deep breaths and relax. Things are going about as well as we could have hoped so far. And let everyone there know I am OK. Oh, by the way tell Cynthia that since it was not an Immortal on Immortal fight that this does not count. Hugs and kisses to everyone and I will talk to you soon. Hope to visit Roswell in a month or so. Bye and take care."

Liz was actually feeling fine- as a matter of fact better then fine. That made her a little curious and she asked the Granolith to make a full scale scan on her and see what her quickening level was at.

The Granolith hummed loudly for a minute- got quiet then hummed again. That tipped off Liz that it was double checking something that surprised it.

"Queen Elizabeth your quickening energy level has increased by approx 11%. I hypothesize that King Maxwells healing powers have strengthened it- there is no other logical conclusion. The question is is this a permanent increase or will it decrease as time goes by? Are you wearing the transmitter device I manufactured for you regularly?"

"Yes I am. I will continue to do so. This is interesting. If I forget remind me to have you scan me again in one week, that should be enough time to detect any changes."

Liz was musing on all this as she went back up to their Rooms. If Max can increase quickenings during healing that makes other possibilities something to think about. The transmitter only maintains your quickening or builds it to its original level. There must be a way to duplicate Max's power.

An hour later the Granolith was calling them that the Canadian Prime minister wanted to talk to them.

"I am offering the official apologies on behalf of the People of Canada to the Royal Family of Antar. We deeply regret this terrible act of violence. The people of Yellowknife wish for you to come back so that they can offer their personal regrets. I think this would be a good idea from a PR standpoint. This incident has helped with the acceptance of the settlement plan. The man who did it has been identified as a native who has suffered from mental problems for some years. Apparently he blamed all of his problems on Aliens damaging his mind. Needless to say he will spend the rest of his days in a mental institution. "

Max nodded. "We will indeed go back to Yellowknife as soon as possible. I hope they understand that from now on we will be traveling with Antarian Bodyguards."

"I am sure no one will object now. I think it goes without saying that you will have a much stronger escort from now on. The RCMP commander has asked me to render his apologies for his men not being able to act in time. "

Liz stepped forward. "Tell the RCMP commander that his men could not have been expected to be everywhere. Attempted assassinations are as old as time. Neither he nor they owe us an apology. I am ok and no permanent harm was done to anyone except the person responsible and he lost his hand. And will spend the rest of his life in a mental institution. I consider that sufficient punishment."

"Thank you for your generosity Queen Elizabeth. Contact us as soon as you are ready for the visit."

There had been several video camera's at the event and one had done a very good job of catching the attempted assassination. The video went world wide within 2 hrs of the incident. Many commented on how fast the Queen reacted. Some said she moved a lot faster than the RCMP people there and why was that? She was human; so were they; they were trained for this and she was not. Yet she took the only effective action. The reputation of the RCMP took a hit. Some saying they should change their motto to "We SOMETIMES get our man." The Canadian prime minister was quick to relay the Queens message that there were no apologies needed. Not on Canada's part nor on the RCMP. That seemed to help some.

The media attention on the Seacouver group had gradually lessened when it was seen that there really was not much for them to add as regards the Roswell aliens. Duncan's role as Liz's trainer in sword fighting got more attention after the incident in Canada, but it was not that great. His interview with Randi had done a lot to clear things up and had made them seem a lot less interesting—always a good thing as regards the media. After the interview, Randi told him that she knew that there was a lot more to the story, but that she also knew that after a few years of trying and coming up with nothing, that it was futile to pursue it. Duncan thanked her for her understanding, and promised to let her know if anything really happened, and he could tell her. She laughed at that and said that she would believe that when it happened—whatever he was into was so high security that he would never be able to tell her anything anyway. Duncan had smiled at that and told her that one never knew—he had not thought that the alien part would come out like it did either.

The incident in Canada did indeed have a positive effect, and opposition to the settlements steadily decreased. More countries were volunteering to host settlements, and that was considered a very good thing in that it would decrease the burden on Australia and Canada. On the other hand, it made things a lot more complicated with all the different cultures, governments and legal systems. Max had had to bring in a lot more Antarians into the process with the increasing number of countries involved; and it was getting to the point where they were falling behind in contacting them and setting up meetings. Liz finally told him that it looked like they were going to have to involve the UN in the process—neither was happy about that with another layer of bureaucracy involved, but they really did not have much choice. Even with all the help the US State Department had given them, more than a few of the countries involved did not have good relations with the US, so it was seen that UN involvement would be necessary.

Max contacted the UN General Secretary and asked for assistance. Immediate response followed, and he and Liz transported to NY and had a meeting with him the next day, two days after the incident. They took 4 Antarian bodyguards with them this time. The meeting went well, and they then went to talk to some of those that would be assigned to help them inside the UN. Liz had a list of the Antarians that they were going to use, and started to match them up with the countries that they would be assigned to.

While in NY, Liz decided that it would be a good idea to keep schmoozing the media, and Max agreed, so they stayed over for another day and did the rounds of the networks. Their return visit to Yellowknife would be the following day. Needless to say, the media was very interested in the incident and peppered both of them with questions about Max healing Liz, and for Liz, how was she able to sense the attack and be so ready when everyone else was caught by total surprise. Liz was able to deflect those questions by saying she noticed the person because he stood out with his scruffy clothing and general demeanor, and when she looked closer she could see the hate in his eyes and on his face. As regards the healing, Max simply said that he had to make a connection to the person, and they had to be conscious. Otherwise he could do nothing.

The next day they headed for Yellowknife flying on a US Air Force jet. Once again, the 4 Antarian bodyguards were with them and were noticeably staying closer. This surprised no one and was very much expected. The people of Yellowknife were very much up front about feeling that they owed them an apology, and Liz countered that by saying that no one can be responsible for what a mentally deranged person did—unless they knew he was going to cause trouble and did nothing about it. They admitted that he had been strange for years but had not harmed anyone. Liz then said it was just one of those things, and there was really no one to blame but the perpetrator. They then went out and looked at some sites suggested by locals for one of the settlements—about 20 miles outside of Yellowknife located near a small lake. There was level ground and not a whole lot of vegetation in the preliminary designated area. Both Max and Liz thought that the site was just fine, and said it was ok on their end. The Canadian Government representative then also signed off on it, and from that point on, it would be known as Settlement #1. Liz joked that that made one with only 399 to go. After a quick conversation with the Canadian Prime Minister, it was decided to give that information to the media.

The word that the first settlement had been designated got out quickly around the world, and competition seemed to heat up for more—countries by now realized that they would gain a lot as regards technology and cheap energy, and were now in full competition despite what their populations might think. As suspected, there was a lot more resistance in the heavily Muslim countries, and also in those with strong Hindu beliefs. Max and Liz had decided that they would avoid those countries if possible. Luckily so far, none of them had requested settlements. Though Egypt was reportedly thinking about it. They had the room and certainly needed cheap energy and technological advances. Liz had suggested that they quietly enquire just how serious they were and that they would work with them if possible. The poorer countries really needed the help, and they had decided that they would do their best for them even if there were no settlements. However, they also felt that that needed to be kept quiet for a while until they had all the settlements possible lined up. Their first priority had to be to make sure there were settlements for all of the population of Granular and Antar. Lord Lanar had asked to try and make all of Granular in one country—either Australia or Canada, and Max had promised to do his best. It was looking like it would be Australia.

Duncan had gotten a call from Connor that very much surprised him. Finding out that Rachel McLeod had visited New York and had decided to stop in at the Antique Shop surprised him as well. And from what he could read between the lines, something had started up between Connor and Rachel. Which was something that Duncan was very glad to hear—he thought that Connor truly needed to try and reach out and move away from his loner status. Duncan then called Rachel and asked her what she thought. He was relieved when she fully endorsed the budding relationship. She told Duncan that she was working on getting Connor to visit the Highlands. Something he had not done in hundreds of years.

Rachel had returned home to find that she really missed Connor. She had realized that something was starting up there but had no idea the impact leaving him would have. She also sensed that there was something about Connor that reminded her of Duncan—something beyond the fact that they were both McLeods. She got the feeling that Connor was much older then he appeared—the same feeling she got from Duncan. She also then found out that Duncan was somehow connect to the Roswell Aliens—and it had to do with Sword Fighting—and that he had taught the American-born Queen. The incident in Canada showed that she had learned well, too. Rachel just knew there was more to it than that—she just knew it. But what was it? If Duncan was the reincarnated original—or what if Duncan was THE original. That was something she had not really considered. Could he possibly be over 400 years old—that would explain the feelings she got from both of the McLeods.

One of Connor's questions had been about the possibility of having children. Duncan had told him everything—and had pointed out that they no longer needed to go to Antar. It could be done here on earth if you were willing to sleep for 9 months. Connor had not seemed enamored with either possibility. Though he seemed almost more willing to go to Antar then get podded. The fact that he was even considering it spoke volumes about what he was thinking as regards Rachel—and this after only a 3-day visit. Duncan decided to talk to Max and Liz. He was thinking that Rachel would have to be brought in on the Immortal Secret. Though he had a hunch she already knew something was very different about the McLeods.

Liz was quite happy to talk to Duncan about something outside of Aliens and the resettlement. She decided that a visit to Rachel and the Highlands would be a nice vacation for her and Max, whom she felt really needed to get away for a while. The real heavy lifting in getting things started had been done, and now it was a matter of lots of low level meetings and paperwork that really was not something he needed to be part of. The retooling and realignments on Antar and Granular were well under way and were going well. There was no reason they could not take a week or so off and get away from it all. The Highlands of Scotland seemed a very good choice for that. Telling this to Duncan got quite a reaction from him—he thought it was a very good idea. He then told her that he would talk to Connor.

Liz made it quite clear that any visit to the Highlands would be done as just Max and Liz, not the King and Queen of Antar. From what Duncan said about the Inn, that would work quite well. The Antarian bodyguards were not happy, but admitted that as long as no one knew who they were, it should be safe enough. Duncan had decided that Amanda needed to see his homeland ,and they would bring the twins. Joe and Rebecca of course would be coming as both watchers and God Parents.

One thing that had been debated was whether to tell anyone else on earth that they were coming. Telling anyone risked it getting out—but on the other hand, it would be the courteous thing to do. Max decided to talk direct to President Bush about it. He listened, then told Max he would talk to a couple of people and see what they thought—he would consider letting the British Prime Minister know. About 2 hours later, he called back and told Max that contacting the British Prime Minister would be a good move. Other than that, keep it quiet. They arranged for a conference call with the President and Prime Minister the next day. Max and Liz would pop in to the White House quietly, and then talk to the Prime Minister.

The meeting went well. The Prime Minister decided to have a unit of the SAS locate nearby but not at the Inn, and would be on call. Max and Liz would take a special transmitter with them that could only be heard by them. The visit then was set for 3 days from then.

Duncan, Amanda, the twins and Joe and Rebecca arrived the day before Max and Liz did. Rebecca had called Cynthia and let her know that she would stand in as Liz's watcher. Joe would double for both Duncan and Amanda.

Captain Williams of the SAS was a little puzzled by his mission. Bodyguard duty was not usually the SAS mission, though technically this was only a 'surveillance and respond if necessary' mission. Though he had to admit it was certainly different than most of the missions he had had in the five years he had been with the SAS. His team was a very experienced and established group, and he was quite confident that they could handle anything coming up. Since the King and Queen were not traveling officially, and were in a part of Scotland that was not exactly tourist central, it seemed safe enough. The incident in Canada was a troubling one, but that had happened because the crazy man had known they were coming.

Max and Liz had decided to transport right to the Inn—or nearby anyway. Duncan had brought the transmitter from Seacouver just in case, and they could use it to home in on. The greeting from their friends was gratifying and low key, which suited them just fine. Calm and quiet and non-surprising sounded real good to them.

Liz immediately got together with Amanda and Rebecca, and quizzed them on the kids. Max rolled his eyes and went to look around the Inn with Joe and Duncan. Rachel was surprised to see him, then figured out what was going on—or so she thought.

"Come to check on me for Connor, am I right?"

"Now Rachel, you have only known Connor for a few days, and you really thing he would do that?"

"Maybe. It's more likely then that you are checking up on me. Wondering if I am getting in too deep with your cousin."

"Maybe. But I do know that he had not shown this much interest in a woman for a long time, and while that part is good, I am not totally sure it's good for you. Connor is very much a lone wolf and very set in his ways. It would not be easy for you—and that is not even counting on the distance factor. Sooner or later, one of you would have to move. I think Connor would do so, but what would he do here? It's not like this would be a good place for a high end antique shop."

"It's early days to be worrying about that, Duncan. Though I admit those are valid concerns."

"True, it is early. And I really wanted to show Amanda where I came from."

"Ah, so you finally admit that you are the Highlander."

"Rachel. You know very well what I meant."

"Keep it up, Duncan, and someday I might believe you."

Max found the Inn and surrounding countryside very relaxing and beautiful. Having grown up in dry Roswell, the climate and terrain and growth was very different. Antar was fairly benign as regards weather, more like Roswell only wetter. So the Highlands of Scotland was a great change.

The next day, Liz and Duncan and Amanda went out into the countryside to practice. Duncan, from his last visit, knew of a clear field only a mile away that was not frequented by many and would suit them fine. Joe and Rebecca of course came along. Max found himself stuck babysitting by a smirking Liz.

Liz had not had a chance to spar for quite a while, and found she was indeed rusty. Amanda put her down twice in just the first few minutes. Duncan kept up a litany of her mistakes that quickly ticked her off—which was what he wanted. Liz getting ticked off meant that she got harder and meaner and more determined and focused.

Captain Williams did not know what to think. And most of his team was just as surprised and puzzled. They had been keeping surveillance on the Royals and had identified the friends they met there as being from Seacouver and well known to them. So seeing them practice with swords was not that surprising; seeing Duncan's wife (while Amanda was considering Duncan's wish to get married—she so far had not said yes—but they had decided to put it out that they were indeed married) and the Queen going at it like they were was a totally different thing. This was real—not playacting. They were cutting each other and trying to kill each other—and their wounds were healing in minutes. And the King, who was known to be able to heal, was back at the Inn with the McLeods' children; being watched by part of the team.

After Liz got mad, she got better and started to take the fight to Amanda and was able to take her down a couple of times. After about 20 minutes, they called a halt to catch their breath—they had pushed each other very hard. Duncan then started his warm-up routine and told Liz that she was next. Liz gave him the finger which had Amanda laughing out loud.

Captain Williams thought that the women had been pretty impressive, but what Duncan McLeod showed just warming up was a whole different league. Master swordsman seemed almost insufficient.

Miles Wilson had been Immortal for almost 200 years; not quite a headhunter, he did take advantage of every opportunity. He also had a typical old time Englishman's contempt for the barbaric Scots, and he particularly had an intense dislike of Highlanders—and one in very much hatred for Duncan McLeod who he thought had gotten an undeserved reputation. And now with his friendships with the Aliens, he was even famous. As he walked past the Statue, he had a desire to locate some explosives and blow it up. He was ticked off enough to turn away and walk into the woods to calm down. He found a trail and began to walk down it. He still did not know why he had decided to come up here—just seemed like somehow a good idea which he was already regretting. As he walked into the woods for a while he came to a clearing and was astonished to hear the clang of swords.

Captain Williams was alerted by one of his men that someone was coming close. He was a little ticked off since watching Duncan spar with both the women at the same time was something to see. The Queen had actually done quite well in her short session, but of course McLeod had won rather quickly. Then both of the women decided that they needed to work together to give him a good workout. They were pushing hard, but he was able to counter quite well.

Miles realized that that was Duncan McLeod sparing with two women. He did not recognize either one (he had only read about the aliens and the rest—he did not like TV and only watched it when he had no other choice—civilized people read the London Times and nothing else). He thought it was time that someone taught the Highlander a lesson, and he was the one to do it.

All three of them felt the buzz at the same time and turned towards the source. They saw a sandy haired man, about 6 ft tall and standard of build, walking towards them with his sword out.

"My name is Miles Wilson, and I challenge you, Duncan McLeod."

Duncan looked at Liz and Amanda, and they shrugged and moved off to the side. McLeod raised his sword and said, "So let's get to it"

Captain Williams did not know what to do. He was supposed to be protecting the Royals, but they were not involved. This new man had challenged McLeod, and he had a sinking feeling that that meant a fight to the death. He realized that realistically he should have his team step in and stop it—but while he was thinking about it, they had started.

Miles was feeling confident as he started—he knew he was good.

Duncan as usual when he knew nothing about his opponent started cautiously and on the defensive. Wilson was good, no doubt about it, but was he good enough?

Joe and Rebecca who had been watching from one side of the forest were totally surprised at the challenge. Rebecca asked him what he thought as the battle began.

"Never heard of him. Which might mean nothing—but usually the top ones get well known one way or another. Depends on his age."

At that moment, Wilson's watcher, James Dicken showed up. He knew that Joe Dawson was Duncan McLeod's watcher so he knew who Wilson was fighting. Joe greeted him and asked how good was Wilson.

"He is good—but not as good as he thinks he is. I really doubt he is a match for the Highlander. He hates Scots and is jealous of McLeod's reputation—so that is what this is all about. I guess it will depend on whether McLeod lets him keep his head or not."

Duncan had gotten the measure of Wilson after a few minutes and was not particularly impressed. He decided to pick up the pace.

Wilson was not feeling as confident as he had. McLeod had played defense and now was attacking, and he was having a hard time countering.

Duncan had him off balance and made his move, slashing right, cutting left and then stabbing Wilson right in the stomach as he overextended himself blocking the left cut.

Wilson had never before taken a serious wound, and the pain had him on his knees, dropping his sword and putting both hands over his wound.

Duncan stood over him. "I have nothing personal against you Wilson; if you agree to leave and never come near me and my own again, I will let you keep your head."

Wilson looked up at him and spat on his shoes. "Go to hell, Highlander."

Duncan shook his head. "So be it." And he cut off his head.

Captain Williams could not believe his eyes. The highlander had cut of the other man's head. Just like that. The wound he had taken would have killed him anyway—but why had McLeod said he would let him live. He was trying to figure out what to do when it started. Lightning started to fly from the headless corpse and hit the Highlander—bolts of Lightning! And the sky was clear and sunny! It went on and on knocking the Highlander down and causing him to groan and grunt. And then it was over.

Captain Williams decided that he needed to get drunk. Or at the very least have a few stiff ones. How was he going to write up his report? After the fight and the lightning or whatever it was, the Queen had quietly walked up to where he and some of his men were in concealment and asked to speak to him. He felt a little put out that she apparently had known exactly where they were the entire time. She then told him that he needed to speak to Joe Dawson before he wrote his report. And then brought him over.

Liz had known the SAS would be nearby and knew also that they would write up a report of some kind on the events of that afternoon. It was not hard to figure out where they were—and after the quickening had finished with Duncan, she walked over to Joe and told him about the SAS. He shook his head and said that was a problem—she told him that she would talk to them, and that after that, he needed to let the Captain in on Immortals. Joe looked at her in shock—she pointed out that their reports are as highly classified as any in the world, and what choice did they really have? Either tell them or have them speculating on what really happened. This way, it would buy them some time, and with the amount of influence the Watcher's had, it might be enough to get this quietly filed away somewhere. Joe thought about that and had to admit that she had a point. He muttered that for a secret society, the Watchers were getting pretty open. Liz tweaked him by pointing out that the Watchers had in fact been very lucky for a long time, and they had to expect this sooner or later. And Joe had to admit that she had another point.

Captain Williams decided that his report would go straight to the PM and bypass all other officials—which technically he could probably do, but it would be really annoying to the SAS brass. But this report had things in it that had world wide—frankly galaxy wide—implications. Immortals on earth. And the Queen of Antar was one of them. Joe had told the Captain most of the story—and had then stressed that the report needed to go to the PM and no one else. And the Captain had to agree with that.

After they got back to the Inn, Liz filled in Max on what happened. He wanted to get in touch with the PM right away, but Liz told him that the report would not go in for a few days, and they needed the vacation. Wilson's body was quietly buried by the SAS team who frankly felt that they really did not want to know anyway.

Liz then went to Duncan and suggested that since things were kind of shaking loose that they might as well go the whole hog, get Connor over here, and let Rachel in on the secret. Duncan was not so sure, but Amanda was—she felt that Rachel deserved to know in any event, and that from her reading of the young woman, she was not going to let Connor walk away even if he felt he should. Duncan asked Joe and Rebecca for their input, and Rebecca agreed with Amanda; Joe felt that Rachel was someone who was going to find out sooner or later. Duncan bowed to the inevitable and called up Connor.

Connor was a little puzzled by the phone call from Duncan—he wanted Connor to catch the next plane out to the Highlands. Duncan was quick to reassure him that nothing was wrong—but that events had taken place that would probably lead to Rachel knowing about Immortals anyway, and he should be here for that. When pressed for details, Duncan merely said that he had had to take a head, and while Rachel had not seen, it she would probably find out about it fairly soon. Connor was a little uncertain about whether he wanted to pull Rachel into the Immortal world, but since it looked like it would happen anyway, he wanted to be there. He had finally been able to admit—after Rachael had prodded him some—that Rachel McLeod had gotten under his skin—and it had been a very long time since that had happened. And now with the possibility of having children—he knew that that temptation was one he would have a very hard time indeed walking away from.

The PM got the report two days after it happened—when told it was eyes only for him, he knew something had happened and thought it had alien ramifications; he was stunned by what he read. And even more stunned when a representative of the Royal Family told him that the Queen needed to talk to him. She informed him that the ruler of the British Empire usually had known about Immortals for several hundred years and that it was the most closely held secret that the Royal Family had. And not all Kings and Queens were told—Mad King George had not been told, but the Prince had; one senior member of the Royal Family would know if it was decided that the ruler should not be told. And then the PM was told about the Watchers. After all this, he felt the need for a really strong drink.

Liz and the others were glad that the rest of their visit was quiet in comparison. Connor arrived the next day, and after a long talk with Duncan and the others, decided to tell Rachel everything. Connor's watcher was able to arrive just after him and was taken aside by Joe and informed of what was going on. Connor's watcher had been with him for almost 20 years and was glad to see him coming out of his shell. Though the whole alien theme still had him off balance. Joe told him not to worry too much about the alien part; that was actually simple compared to Immortal problems.

Rachel McLeod stood at her window on the top floor of the inn and contemplated what Connor McLeod had told and shown her that afternoon. Immortals. Aliens she could just barely accept, but Immortals really threw her. She knew that she had fallen in love with Connor the day she got back to the INN and realized that none of that meant anywhere near what it had before her trip. She had always known that she wanted children badly and the fact that now there was a way for Immortals to have children comforted her greatly. But it was still a lot to wrap her mind around.

Liz, Amanda and Rebecca had discussed what they would tell Rachel (they knew without a doubt that Rachel would want to know more than Connor told her); as usual, it seemed Liz got the short straw. She went up to Rachel's room about an hour after Connor had brought her back from showing and telling.

Rachel turned to look at the door as someone knocked on it. While part of her wanted to be alone, another part did not want to be alone with the thoughts she now had in her head. She told whoever it was to come in and was a little surprised to see that it was Liz (who had made it quite clear that she was just Liz and nothing else).

Liz came in the room and assessed Rachel. She figured that Rachel was just beginning to believe what was happening and would probably need someone to talk to.

"I take it that Immortals and such are not what you really expected, even though from what Duncan said, you had an inkling anyway."

"I thought I did. But now I think I was not really a believer. Not like I am now—or at least trying to be."

Liz nodded to herself—pretty much what she had thought. Well time to show her that she is not alone.

Rachel blinked. The Queen of Antar was an Immortal?

Liz recognized that look on Rachel's face. She then looked over at a desk and saw a letter opener. She walked over to it, picked it up to show Rachel, then cut her arm.

Rachel watched the blue sparks wind around the wound and close it and heal it without a scar. While Connor had told her, he had not demonstrated it. Seeing it is not like being told about it.

"That was just to show you that it's not a gigantic hoax. Now I am here to answer any questions that you might have. You will get a lot more information out of me then you will get from either Duncan or Connor."

"Just for the Record, Amanda and I are Immortals as well. She is over 1000 years old. I am just a little over 20, but have been immortal since my shooting four years ago. Since I was on Antar for a while I have aged a year or so—actually probably about 2 years total—which I have no problem with, since being stuck at age 16 was not something I really wanted."

Rachel just looked at her—she did manage to keep her mouth from gaping open.

"I was shot—I think you have heard the public story—what you do not know was that I died at the hospital, but due to an airhead nurse not hooking up monitors correctly, no one knew. Which was a good thing in those circumstances. Immortals can sense other pre-immortals if they are old enough and are close enough. Duncan just happened to be in Roswell and just happened to pass by close enough to catch my pre-immortal buzz as I passed him in the ambulance going to the hospital. Now, one would have to think that that kind of multiple coincidences are hard to swallow—and I agree. Duncan NEVER had any interest in aliens, New Mexico, Roswell, etc. Yet, he just happened to be in exactly the right place at the right time. It's like how Immortals come about—there are no mothers or fathers; we just appear as newborn babies out of the blue. Now the Granolith has figured out how to duplicate the energy of the Quickening—but look how advanced it had to be to do that, and it admitted that it was not easy even for it. So frankly, someone or something has been up to tricks for thousands of years. The fact that the Granolith, a machine, can duplicate the energy kind of takes us away from the Idea that God has something to do with this—or if He does, he is using contractors. My personal opinion is that a higher being, not necessarily God, had arranged this somehow. Using energy and powers that we only recently have hints of. Purpose: who knows? I would like to believe that there was a good reason, but this whole game part—the Prize Part anyway—argues more for someone who was bored and decided to play with so called lower beings. Starts things off and sets up a mechanism to keep it up, then sits back and laughs as we screw it up. Immortals could have done so much for mankind over the millennia, yet instead, we concentrate on cutting off each other's heads. Add to all that the fact that I just happen to fall in love and he with me an exiled king of another planet who did not even know he was a king—and do not get me started on all the strange happenings THERE—and now they have to come to earth because of a Rogue Dwarf Star—and even the experts on Antar are totally puzzled on how THAT happened—and more and more you get the idea we are playing in someone else's sandbox."

Rachel sat down. And stared at her. "Wow. This is a lot to get my brain around. But you certainly make a good argument that we are being played. That list of coincidences has to be so far out of the odds that billions or trillions to one probably does not even come close. I have always believed that there is more out there then we can see, feel and touch. That there is more than us—much more. All that I have found out just recently just screams it now. I also know that I cannot hide my head in the sand and not be part of it. I want to be with Connor, and hopefully he wants to be with me. And whatever I have to do to make it work, I will do."

Liz nodded. "From all that Duncan has said about Connor, he has not allowed himself to get involved for a very long time. The fact that he has made the steps he has taken so far is huge. So he is very interested but fears loss and that you might get hurt. That is a tough one to beat, but you just have to be persistent. Don't give up, don't get discouraged; show him you are in for the long haul and that is that. Now that children is possible for Immortals, you also have that to look forward to—and it's very important to Connor as well. So one of his reasons for walking away is gone. Don't let him find any more."

"I won't. As a matter of fact, I am going to find him and attack him right now. Hopefully we will be indisposed for some time."

Liz grinned. "Now that is a plan."

Connor was standing by the Highlander statue. Musing on the strange happenings of the last few months. He felt someone coming up and turned to see Rachel coming towards him with a very determined look on her face. He was still uncertain—not of his feelings, but of the possible results.

"Ok, Connor, I just had a nice long talk with Liz. There is a place I want to show you, just down an old trail. It's part of yours and my history. And hopefully a part of our future."

Duncan watched Rachel lead his cousin down an old path that he knew about from his last visit. There was an old cabin, very old, that Rachel had kept up as original but told very few about. He had a hunch they would not see the two of them for quite a while, and that made him happy. He badly wanted his cousin to have what he had. He felt an arm come around his waist, and he pulled Amanda in closer. She could just barely see Rachel and Connor going down the path.

"Good for her. Liz told me that she had decided to take the first big step. Because we all know Connor would not."

"Now Amanda, he has very good reasons for being cautious."

"Bullcrap."

Duncan looked at her.

"Head in the sand and hope it goes away is no way to live. Connor is about to find out differently. This is a good thing. And from someone who up to a few years ago was about as self absorbed as possible, you better remember that."

"That was a façade, Amanda. I have always known that. Many are fooled, but not me."

"When you were young and stupid, you were."

"We are all young and stupid at one time or another."

"Watch out, Duncan; you are starting to sound like Darius."

"I could do much worse."

"If you try and become a Monk, I am outta here."

"If you have nothing else to do, I think I can persuade you that THAT is not very likely."

"So far, all I hear is talk, Highlander."

Connor and Rachel did not come back until the next morning and were greeted by a fair number of smirks and innuendo. Connor just gave them a blank look while Rachel had a smile that would have taken a hammer and chisel to remove. Joe had gotten a call back from the Watchers that the PM had been briefed in, and that so far, it looked like that report would get filed and forgotten. And Captain Williams and two of his team had expressed interest in becoming watchers.

Duncan and Connor had a long talk and then went to Liz and Max. Connor wanted to come to Antar for as long as was needed to be able to have children. Rachel had already spoken to Liz about it, but Connor was a little more formal then Duncan. Liz of course was overjoyed and quite happy to have more friends on Antar. Rachel then began to make arrangements for another cousin to run the Inn while she was gone. She told Liz that she and Connor had not yet figured out where they would settle down. He liked NY but was quite willing to come back to the Highlands. Rachel felt that they could compromise and maybe stay half the year in each place. Liz felt that that was a great idea, and more than likely down the road, they would end up in one or the other.

When it was time to leave, Duncan and his group left for the airport while Max, Liz, the children, Connor and Rachel got transported to Antar via the Granolith. Rachel settled in right away helping with the children and working on the settlements. Connor found that his expertise in antiques came in handy since it had been decided that the most valuable objects on Antar would be transported to Crevar where they would be stored until a new planet was found. Max had Connor be the impartial judge when the committee appointed to pick what would be saved from what would be left to be destroyed could not agree. Connor was somewhat surprised how polite even the heated arguments stayed.

Time seemed to fly by as the preparations on Earth, Granular and Antar moved ahead. The settlements had been established in a total of 87 countries. Far more than originally hoped or planned, but that was how it worked out. 52 countries had just one; 11 had 2; 6 had 3; 4 had 4; 3 had 5; 2 had 6; 1 had 8, 1 had 9; 1 had 10; 1 had 11; 1 had 12; The US had 30; Russia had 30; Canada had 55 and Australia had 100 (Granular). The fact that this had only taken a little over 6 months astounded just about everyone. With the settlement positions established, preparation began immediately. Mostly, it was clearing land and leveling ground; more would have to wait until the first ships arrived from Antar. They were due in another 5 months. They would bring the first parts of the power plants that would be required. The schedule had been moved up as ships were being built faster then had originally been planned. It was now thought that the necessary 120 ships would be finished a full 4 months earlier than had been hoped. And there was some thought that that schedule would be improved upon if some changes worked out as hoped. This extra ability allowed Max to start moving equipment earlier then had been scheduled. The initial settlements would be started in Australia and Canada, then the poorest and most needy countries would come next. It was thought that that would help those countries as soon as possible. Countries like Mongolia and Chad and Somalia badly needed all the help they could get. With virtually free power that had no pollution worth mentioning, it was a good bet that those countries would finally start to develop.

There was approximately 25 months to go before Granular and Antar would be destroyed; the uncertainty of just when it would happen depended on what kind of velocity was going to be imparted upon the Rogue Dwarf by the Pegasus star itself. No one had any real idea, and so the actual date would probably vary about a week or so. Due to the projected path, it really did not make much difference—the Rogue would be moving right down the line of the two planets orbit around Pegasus, so a week made no difference at all.

Liz had been surprised a little when Grace had told her that she and Methos had decided to have another child. The way Methos was about losing his Quickening once, Liz had thought he would not do it again. Still, she was very happy, and with Grace around, Liz found time to once again get into Microbiology and the like. Extensive research was going into finding out what the difference Earth would make on Antarians and Granularians who would be staying for years. While the Granolith felt very confident that it had already identified all the energy and biological differences, Liz was not so sure and wanted to look at it all in a little more detail. The Scout ships had been unable to come up with any other viable planets and it looked like there was little hope of finding one anytime soon. Max directed them to now start looking farther away and in previously uncharted and unknown systems, more with an eye for a permanent home in the future. It was out there—they just had to find it.

Things had finally settled down as much as it ever was on Earth as regards to the coming migration. With many countries now eager for the benefits of alien migration, that particular problem was long gone; now it was the hard work of finding ways to compromise and fit in totally different systems and cultures that would be right next to each other. In the US, the settlements would be in Utah, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. And indeed one would be near Roswell. Max had decreed that that would be the temporary capital of Antar. Lord Lanar had decreed that the first settlement of Katherine, Australia would be the Granular temporary capital.

By the first year mark, ground had been broken on all the settlements, and the first ships had reached Earth. Due to the dangers of the interstellar drive, the engine rooms of the ships would stay in orbit while the rest of the ship, using backup power and anti gravity drive, was to land on the ground. That still made an impressive site as the part of the ship that landed was still over 600 feet long and 400 feet in diameter. 10 ships made the first trip a full 5 months earlier then hoped. 10 more would be following in 4 months; then the big move 4 months later when 20 would come. By the time that group appeared, all the power plant equipment would be in place in all the settlements. The first full-time refugees would come in the fourth group of 40 ships. It had been decided that trying to move everyone at the end was not a great idea, and the migration would begin a full year earlier. The fifth group of 40 ships would bring a full one third of the population. That would leave the last group of ships making their third run to bring everyone else. It was now thought that the evacuation would be complete a full 3 months before the worlds were destroyed.

The settlements were very similar: using advanced materials and technology, 300 foot high buildings each capable of holding 5000 people were put up very quickly. Each covered the equivalent of 4 city blocks and 200 of them only took up half of the available ground. The support and service facilities covered the rest of the ground. Each settlement was totally self-sufficient as regards power. Advanced evaporators and desalinators for those near salt water furnished the necessary water. Enough food would be brought to last a full year; already some crops were being planted in the areas around the settlements. As was planed for the first year, there would be no draw on Earth's resources.

The areas around the settlements were quickly becoming boom towns. With free power and advanced technology readily available, expenses for businesses were very low. Manufacturing plants were going up already. Max had decreed that when possible, the poorest areas would have their settlements given priority. Chad, Somalia, and Haiti were some of the earliest ones built. Even before completion, it was seen that the settlements were helping the poorest of the poor. Free advanced healthcare, immensely improved sanitary conditions, clean water, and sewage treatment plants all contributed to a much more healthy local population. With the work on the local soil to improve crop yields, food would soon become relatively plentiful and cheap. Areas that had no industry or jobs began to get them; the local economies prospered.

With 18 months to go, the first large waves of refugees arrived. Most of the world watched the huge ships move into orbit, and the forward areas separate from the drive section. Then slowly and with great dignity, the huge parts left slowly landed on earth. Thousands of pods were removed from the ships and placed in temporary buildings for the people to be removed. Then the empty pods were reloaded on the sections that were then sent back to orbit to rendezvous with the drive sections. Then the huge ships left for their next trip. Almost 40 million came on the first section. The next section would come in 6 months and have 80 million. The third wave would be the biggest as all but the last ships would be involved and that would have 160 million on it. The last group would have 120 million. It had been decided to keep building the ships since the needed 120 had been build much more quickly then even the earlier estimates had expected. A total of 200 ships would be built. That allowed a lot more food and raw materials to be brought from the two planets and the asteroid belts in the Pegasus system. And in the future, when they finally found the new planet, that would make it easier to move again. And in the meantime, they would be available for interstellar trade which was starting to look quite profitable.

Keeping this whole vast enterprise running smoothly was an immense undertaking. The initial board had delegated to supervisors; who then had to delegate downwards, and so on. A fairly big bureaucracy had inevitably come into being despite the best efforts by many to keep it as small as possible. The one good thing about the worlds ending is that the bureaucracy could not become entrenched. Max had made sure that once everyone left the two planets, most of the paper pushers would have to do something else. Michael had a few creative suggestions, as did Kyle.

Liz had inevitably found herself the chief counselor and mediator as regards keeping friction to a minimum between all concerned parties. Max was tied up just keeping everything in motion, and while all the group were heavily involved, so much of it seemed to need the official Royal Touch to keep small problems from growing into major concerns. So she found herself shuttling back and forth from Antar to Earth and all around both planets. At the 18-month date, Maria put her foot down and confronted both Max and Liz.

"All right, you two, it's time for another vacation. In case you have not noticed, it's been about 8 months since your last one, and that one was interrupted. You need to take time off, and rest and recuperate, and get to know your kids better. I have already talked to the others and the President and Prime Ministers, and they all agree, and if you say no now, we'll be raising hell tomorrow. So get your tails out of here somewhere in the next 48 hours, and take a week off. Everything is going pretty smoothly right now, and any little petty squabbles can be handled by someone else."

Max and Liz looked at each other and reluctantly agreed. Maria was right—they badly needed some time off. Liz leaned back and thought. Rachel had just told Liz the day before that she was pregnant and that Connor was over the moon. Spending time with their family and friends looked really good right now. Grace was also pregnant, due in 4 months. Richie and Courtney were also expecting their next one. So it was decided to arrange for the Inn to be vacant and for all of them to head there for a week. One interesting development was in regards to Cassandra; she had met Constantine, and they had clicked. Duncan was of the opinion that they were quite well matched. Cassandra had talked to Duncan who had in turn talked to Liz, and she had arranged for them to stay on Antar for the needed time to remove their quickening. And of course, both of them became involved in the relocation proceedings. Constantine had a natural command nature, and Cassandra had the knack of figuring out why people acted the way they did, and was very good at nipping things in the bud. Max was happy for all the help he could get.

The British Prime Minister got the word that the Antarian Royals and their immortal friends would be in the Scottish Highlands for a week. He promptly pulled back the SAS detachment that had gone with Max and Liz and had it doubled. And ordered both MI5 and MI6 to monitor things at a distance. He really wanted this vacation to be completely quiet; unlike the last one.

Duncan looked up at the statue of the Highlander and shook his head. Methos was still giving him a hard time about it. Connor was of the opinion that if it was one of Duncan, then the so called artist had to have been drunk at the time.

Rachel walked up beside him and nudged him. Duncan looked at her.

"Now, just ignore that piece of rock. It's not a very good likeness, I agree, but it's the thought that counted. You are the Highlander, and that's that."

"I just hope it never gets around about us. It's damn embarrassing as it is."

"Go on with you. Take it like a Highlander." And of course she burst into laughter at that.

Duncan groaned and looked at Connor. "For someone who said he would never allow a woman to run his life, I notice Rachel has you on a short leash."

Connor smiled. A warm and content smile that Duncan had never seen on his cousin's face until just recently. "I said a great many foolish things when I was young and stupid."

Methos and a very pregnant Grace were slowly walking around the grounds of the Inn. They had found out early on that she was carrying twins and was therefore a lot bigger then she had been the previous time at that stage. Grace was very amused by the mother hen that had come out in Methos; as were all the others. Joe and Richie especially had a series of running jokes about it. They considered this a heaven sent opportunity to even many old scores with Methos. A chicken head and a rooster costume kept popping up around Methos, and it did no good to get rid of them as more kept appearing.

Isabel was expecting another child about the same time as Grace was; and Tess had just told everyone that she was expecting again as well. Maria flat out said that two was enough for them and Michael was in total agreement. Liz was a little wistful, but knew another child was NOT something they really needed to deal with right now; but she was determined to have another one sometime in the future. Cynthia had just had her second child, and Charlie was positively gooey over their young daughter. Duncan got a great deal of amusement out of that.

With the reinforced SAS detachment close at hand and the other services nearby, it had been tacitly agreed that no one was going to be allowed up the hill anywhere near the Inn. The SAS detachment particularly wanted no strangers to come by; the other detachments were a little puzzled by the vehemence they got about that. They got no satisfaction about the reasons why.

Liz had had barely the time to practice her KATA recently let alone spar, so she and Amanda got right down to it the first day at the inn. After getting skewered twice and dumped on her tail three times, Liz got mad and started to do better. Whereupon which Amanda then got Connor to spar with her. That was fun for the other immortals to watch since Connor had never spared with a woman and had never had to really fight one either. His natural gallantry, while not as apparent as Duncan's, was just as strong, and he found himself quickly on the defensive from a warmed up and determined Liz.

The Newbies on the SAS detachment had been quietly filled in on things, but the looks on their faces as the Immortals spared was priceless to the old hands. Methos and Duncan were going at it pretty well, and Liz was giving Connor fits with her quickness and sneaky moves. Amanda sat back and critiqued everyone to her great enjoyment.

Maria stopped by and watched it for a minute.

"It's just not a normal day without blood, guts, swordplay and snarky comments."

A puffing Liz finally put down her sword and got a salute from Connor. "Aye Lass, you do quite well."

She looked at Maria. "Can't let a day go by without a little evisceration and amputation."

Liz found that the time at the Inn was just what she needed. She had not realized how tight she had been wound until she was able to relax and take stock. She knew that Max had probably needed it even more then she did—he had a tendency to take the world on his shoulders. They both needed time together and with their children to remember why they did what they did. Being with their family and friends—and Liz pretty much felt that that was interchangeable—was the best possible vacation.

The Captain of the scout ship looked at his science officer. "Another one?"

"Yes sir. The atmosphere has too much ozone and methane for us to withstand. Add to that it's a very dry planet and realistically even transforming it would be a huge undertaking. We would have to chase down comets with a tremendous amount of ice and have them diverted to hit the planet. The consequences to its stability after several of those hit could be extreme. It's possible it would hold together and then we could plant various species that over time would change the atmosphere to one we could live in. But that would take decades."

The captain sighed and shook his head. This planet from a long range scan had looked promising; the first one they had come across in their new mission to find a planet for Antarians and Granularians to settle on. The other two scout ships had been checking out systems in the next quadrant; they had reported back that no planets had been found that were habitable. The Captain knew that they would find a planet sooner or later; but they had hoped to find one sooner. The number of planets of the class they were looking for was limited; it had to be close enough to the local sun to have liquid water; had to have a nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere; and had to be uninhabited by sentient species. So far they had found 3 that were at the right range but all three had unacceptable atmospheres. The last one was also too dry. Atmospheres could be changed but it would take decades for plants to do so. He did not like it, but once again, the monthly report to the King would be one that had no good news.

Lord Lanar looked over the latest reports on the preparations for the great migration (as the people here called it). The construction of the ships was going better than anyone had a reason to hope for, and they were almost at the original number of 120 already; it looked like they would be able to get 200 by the time they stopped construction 45 days before the rogue Dwarf Star hit. The schedule had been worked so that the last ship would be completed and ready to leave on that date. King Maxwell had wanted to make sure that everyone had left a minimum of 60 days prior to the destruction of both worlds but had been prevailed upon to take it a little closer to the end. The first large group had already landed on earth and were busy finishing their settlements. The next group was on its way and the third and biggest group was even now starting to get ready to load on board the ships. After that, there would be one more large convoy, and the last would be relatively small and consist basically of all those that had been working on the ships, pods and the like. King Maxwell had made it clear that he and the Royal Family would leave AFTER the last of the people left. They would of course use the Granolith which would then transport itself to Earth. And when there, it would go back to the same cavern it had waited in for the Royal Four to find it. Roswell was already expanding, and the settlement outside of it was more than half done. Lord Lanar had been interested in the way the locals there had adapted to the change in reality; if it had been what Max called a Tourist Trap before, it was well beyond that now.

Sheriff Valenti looked at the latest report and sighed. While he was glad that Kyle and Tess and the rest of them would be back to stay in Roswell in less than 18 months, he was not glad about the consequences of everything else that went with it. Roswell had expanded by almost half in the last year and a half since it had been chosen as the temporary capital of Antar. The settlement outside of town was about 2/3 done or close to it; needless to say, as a tourist attraction, it had few peers anywhere in the world at this time. He had expanded his force by half and would need to expand it again as much to keep the lid on. Luckily, the increased tax revenues and other sources of money had made expanding city services a relatively easy thing. At least from the monetary side anyway. And the new power plant would be going online within the next month, and energy costs would be reduced drastically. But the new schools needed were just now being completed; they had had to bring in trailers for classrooms. And he was frankly of the opinion that they would need to expand again. He saw no end in sight for the continued growth of the town and immediate area, and thought that the city planners were being naïve to think that once the settlement was fully running growth would slow down. He put the report down and decided to go to the Crashdown for lunch. Jeff and Nancy had bought the other building that shared the site and had expanded them into a full restaurant and had still kept the original diner as it was. The Restaurant was called the Station; and of course was wildly popular with the tourists; almost as popular as the original Crashdown. Jeff had had to make it into a reservation only diner to go along with the restaurant—the only way to keep control. Outside of the immediate families of the original group, everyone else had to schedule in advance. Nancy had hoped that that would slow things down, but so far, it had not.

Jeff looked up as the Sheriff came into the Crashdown; the doorman had let him know he was coming. Outside of the few that were family and close friends, hardly anyone else that permanently lived in Roswell came into the diner anymore due to having to use a reservation system to keep it from being mobbed by tourists. Even the Restaurant saw very few locals despite the fact that the food there was very good and reasonably priced. While still alien themed, it was much lower key and more elegant. It was modeled to a certain extent on one of the restaurants on Antar which was also a big reason it was so popular.

"Hi, Sheriff. Your usual, or do you want to be different?"

"The Usual. It's nice to have something you can count on not changing."

"I hear that. Well, it will only take a few minutes. So anything new going on?"

"So far, things are going pretty well and no surprises. It's just that as fast as Roswell is growing, we are going to have growing pains. I keep having to expand my force, and it's never fun interviewing prospects and having to weed out those that might cause trouble down the line. Especially with the situation as it's going to be in the next year or so. Finding officers who just want to do their job and not obsess with the alien situation is not easy. Too many are star struck and just want to be here because of that. I want people who I can count on after things start to die down."

"Sounds about what I have to deal with keeping help here and in the restaurant. So many just want to spend some time here and say they worked here, and then leave. I am lucky I have good cooks since I am going through waitresses really fast. It's gotten bad enough on occasion that I almost need to ask Liz and Maria to help out when they visit. I actually think they would have fun doing it, but it's just not right."

"Can't have the Queen of Antar and her lady in waiting slinging hash, can we?"

"HEY. We do not serve hash."

Cynthia was working on Liz's chronicle as she spared with Amanda again after going up against Connor the previous day. She was interested to note that Liz seemed to be able to shake off her rust pretty fast when she wanted to. Getting her riled just seemed to make her meaner and nastier and sneakier; a good trait to have for an Immortal. Even an Immortal Queen who always had bodyguards around her anymore. After the incident in Canada, the Royal Bodyguards had made it clear that the King and Queen would NOT go unaccompanied again. So the likelihood of her having to accept a challenge was pretty slim. But Cynthia was her watcher, and she was going to make sure that anything that had something to do with Immortals went down in the chronicle. She looked over at the basket next to her and checked on Rebecca; her new daughter was asleep. Her godmother was inside talking to Grace; it had been accepted that all the ones in the group might as well know about the Watchers—Grace had actually been aware of them for quite a while. And of course Methos really had had an in with the watchers for a long time. The Council had NOT been happy about things when they found out who Adam Pierson REALLY was. Cynthia personally thought it was pretty funny that they had had the oldest immortal as a watcher for years before he had just gone to the council and let them know. Of course, Joe Dawson had known for a while, but he had merely said that it was none of his business since he had a full time job as not only Duncan McLeod's watcher, but as head of the North American section.

Duncan and Connor were sparing, and just about everyone found a reason to watch. Methos was doing his usual snarky best to critique both of them, but even he found little to gripe about. They were very evenly matched; Duncan had the superior Martial Arts expertise, but Connor was taller and stronger, and had taken on just as many top swordsmen over the centuries; and of course, he had been the one to take the Kurgan's head.

Joe Dawson was doing double duty as both Duncan's and Connor's watchers while they were here at the Inn. Watching them spar was a real treat; it was not often that two such masters went at each other.

Word had trickled down to the local village about what was going on at the Inn; sword fighting and the like. Most at the village just shrugged and went on with their business. One person did not.

James Kilgore was a black Irishman in more than one way; he prided himself as a headhunter that never missed a cheap quickening. He had just been wondering through the Highlands when he stopped at the village and heard the gossip. Figuring there was always a chance to get one, he made his way towards the Inn.

The SAS detachment watched the man moving towards the Inn. Major Williams had a bad feeling about him and decided to intercept him. Two of his men were sent to let him know that visitors were not allowed at this time.

James Kilgore knew trouble when he saw it, and figured right away that the two men approaching him were commando's of some type. So he used the persona that had worked well for him for over 300 years; a feeble minded wanderer.

Major Williams was not happy with his men since they had let the man continue on to the Inn. It did not matter to him that he was simple; he could still be trouble. He ordered two of the men who had been with him before to follow.

Kilgore was quite pleased with himself; that simple minded wanderer had worked well for over 200 years. He walked past the Inn to the field where he had been told there was sparing going on. He could get a good feel for any possible opportunities by watching them.

Connor and Duncan were still going at it—it had been a long time for them, and they found that they were enjoying themselves. Liz and Amanda were taking a rest and watching.

The two men sparing were beyond a doubt masters—James Kilgore took one look at them and knew he wanted no part of that bunch. Now the two women sitting nearby with swords on the other hand; especially the small brunette. Now there was an opportunity.

All 5 of the Immortals in the field felt the buzz at the same time. And turned and looked at him.

It never occurred to Kilgore that challenging one of those present might mean challenges in return from all the others; he had never mingled or got to know any other immortals than the ones he hunted, and the idea that friendship and comradeship would triumph over not taking a chance on losing one's head was beyond his experience. He pointed at Liz and said, "I challenge You."

Duncan and Connor both stepped forward. "Only a coward challenges the weak," said Duncan.

Connor said, "Must be an Irishman; it's well known a yellow streak miles wide runs down every back."

Kilgore looked at them. "The Challenge has been made."

Duncan and Connor smiled—and a chill went down Kilgores neck.

"IF by chance you win, you lose. We will take your head. A coin flip for who gets to do it."

Liz was ticked off and rapidly getting angry. "OK, brave man, let's get to it. I want to see you bleed."

She then advanced towards him quickly.

Kilgore by now had realized that he had stepped into it, but had to raise his sword as Liz attacked.

Liz was more angry then she had ever been. She knew a headhunter by now—and this piece of garbage was probably one of the worst.

Joe had used his cell phone to find out about Kilgore. Turned out his watcher had gotten caught in a traffic jam and had lost him days ago. Joe looked at Duncan. "300 years old and a pure headhunter and proud of it. Not sure just how good he is—he has never fought anyone good."

Duncan grimly nodded. "He will not fight anyone else again. Liz is mad as hell, and is going to give him the short haircut pretty fast."

Liz was fully on the attack, using everything she had learned, and also what she had just seen Duncan and Connor do. Cut, slash, stab, she kept it up.

James Kilgore could not believe it—this tiny female was the toughest opponent he had ever faced. Extremely quick and very well trained.

Major Williams was almost as angry as Liz. He could not believe that his men had let that man get that close to the Queen ,and now there was a battle going on. He pulled out his pistol—he was not going to take a chance—Immortal Rules be damned. The moment it looked bad for the queen, he was going to shoot that SOB.

Liz had found a significant chink in Kilgore's defense; he was not very good parrying left, which was no surprise since most people were right handed. Liz had worked on a move just for someone like that, and she felt now was the time. She feinted right, then a stab, then whirled and slashed left, cutting his leg deeply.

Kilgore tried to move away, his leg was killing him. Liz pressed the advantage, getting closer and closer. Finally up close she stabbed, and as he barely parried it, kicked him right where she had slashed him. He gave a scream of pain and went down. One swing of the sword and his head went rolling.

Major Williams gave a sigh of relief as the Queen beheaded the man. She had never paused in her attack from the first minute, and the result was inevitable. He put away his pistol and looked at his other men. "Get ready for a real Guy Fawkes night, men."

A blue mist rose from the headless body, and Liz kneeled and put her sword down—she had a feeling this was going to hurt. The first bolt hit her right after and they kept coming. Worse than anything she had ever felt before—this SOB had been the worst one yet, and she saw his victims over the centuries. Then she knew nothing as it hit her full on.

The other Immortals stood back and waited as the Quickening hit Liz. Duncan was a little worried since he knew that Kilgore was pretty bad, and from first-hand knowledge, knew full well what Liz was going through.

Cynthia winced as a bolt literally picked Liz up and tossed her a good 10 feet; then another picked her up just as high and dropped her. Charlie put his arm around her and pulled her close as he watched; he was pretty damned glad he did not have to go through this—the Immortals can have it.

Joe had seen some powerful quickenings, and while this was not on the level of Kalas or the like, it was still up there, and Liz was really going to be put through the mill.

Major Williams was astounded by what he saw; compared to what he had seen last year when Duncan McLeod had taken a head, this was the Premier League. The Queen was being picked up and thrown around by the power of the quickening.

Max had heard the first parts of the quickening and had run out to see who was getting it—shocked that it was Liz. He knew he could do nothing to help, but it hurt so much to see the pain she was going through and not be able to do anything about it. Isabel, Alex, Kyle, Tess, Michael and Maria also felt helpless as they saw their friend get tossed, fried and sautéed.

Rachel had moved close to Connor and he pulled her close. "I never knew it would be like that; Liz talked about it and so did you, but it is not believable until you actually see it. She looks like it hurts like hell."

"Aye Lass, it does. Especially one from a black hearted bastard like that one was."

With one last bolt that pretty much spun her then spat her out, the quickening ended. Liz lay there numb and dazed and barely conscious.

Max ran to her as soon as the last bolt died away and picked her up. Her clothes were scorched and torn, and she was dirty from head to toe from being tossed around the field. The glazed look in her eyes told him that she was not all there. He then carried her towards the Inn.

The rest of them slowly followed. The SAS detachment bringing up the rear with the Major still chewing out his men.

"Next time, just shoot the bastard!"

Maria holding Michael's hand as she followed Max carrying Liz yelled, "And if you dummies don't, next time I WILL."

Liz was still dazed and barely conscious when Max set her down on their bed. He undressed her, then picked her up and sat in the bathtub that he had stated when he brought her in. And he just held her, letting the hot water and warmth seep into her bones.

Liz slowly got back to herself—it felt like she was a long ways off. Kilgore's victims danced around in her head, one after another. Slowly, she rode the wave of memories and began to push them into the background of her mind. It just took so long—it was so much harder than the other ones.

Duncan had told the rest of them what he had gone through when he had been overwhelmed by a dark quickening—how he had almost taken Richie's head. And how long it had dominated him. Methos recounted how a White Quickening had changed Darius; Connor described how it had been very hard for him to come to terms with the Kurgan's quickening—how it had come close to taking over.

Maria was worried. "Just how big a chance is there that this SOB's quickening will change Liz?"

Methos shrugged. "It's hard to tell. People react differently. From everything I have seen of Liz, she is very much grounded in herself and in reality. And as bad as Kilgore was, his quickening was nowhere near as strong as the one that took over Duncan. So I do not think it's a big worry—but at the same time, it's something we all need to be aware of, and to watch Liz to see that even if she has tamped it down now to make sure that it does not surface later."

Max just held his love and thought. Enough was enough—Liz was NOT going to accept any more challenges no matter what. Next bastard that tried, he was going to fry him right away no matter what.

Liz blinked and moved a little. Max held her and whispered, "Liz, it's OK, we are back in our room, and everything is fine. Just relax and rest."

Liz groaned. She hurt all over. This quickening had been so much stronger and so much darker from Kilgore's thoughts than the other two had been—and the victims had been much more numerous. She felt them still in the back of her mind. She relaxed back against Max and sighed.

"That was a pretty bad one. He was as nasty a creep as there is around. He enjoyed killing, and he especially enjoyed the fear. I can feel his victims—so many."

"Enough is enough, Liz. No more. This is just too much for you."

Liz smiled slightly. As usual Max was over reacting, and over protective. Some things do not change.

"It is what it is, Max. This is my life. Good and bad. My immortality comes at a price, and this is part of it. We have beaten some of it by having children. But some of it you cannot beat or run away from, and this is part of it."

"You do not have to accept the challenges, Liz. Either Duncan or Connor would have been happy to take that bastard down. You did not have to."

Liz sighed. Though she had to admit that Max had a point about this last one—she could have declined and let Connor or Duncan take care of it. She knew a marriage is sometimes a compromise—and maybe this was a time to give a little.

"OK, Max. Next time, if there is a choice, I will turn it down if I can."

Max smiled. He knew how hard it was for Liz to step back and not step up.

"That's all I am asking Liz—just do not be on the front line if you don't have to be." (And I am going to try and make sure that I am around and can fry the SOB first.)

It was a couple of hours later that Max and Liz left their room and went into the main hall where their friends and family were still waiting.

Maria rushed up and hugged Liz. "Chica, how are you? Not having dark thoughts and impulses are you?"

Methos groaned. A great way to start the conversation.

Liz could not resist. After letting Maria go she said in a very husky and strange voice.

"Who is this Chica?"

Maria blanched and backed off. The others looked very worried. Until they saw Max looking at her with a smile and shaking his head.

Maria swatted Liz. "That was mean, Liz, after the stories that Duncan and Methos told us about dark quickenings."

Liz grinned at her. "Just could not help myself Maria. You were kind of expecting it, and who am I to disappoint?"

The others gathered around her to hug and scold her for her bad sense of humor.

After hugging her, Isabel looked at her hair critically and said, "We HAVE to find a decent hair dresser SOMEWHERE. You look a mess."

Kyle grinned at her. "You really WANTED this guy's head, Liz, the way you went after him. So you really cannot complain if it scrambled your brains."

Tess said, "I am really glad I am not Immortal. I never liked lightning anyway."

Alex hugged her and said, "Next time, Liz, if there is someone else around, turn it down—this was a scary one."

Liz smiled back at him, "If you think it looked bad from your point of view, you have no idea what it was like for me. I have already promised Max that I will decline any more challenges if I can."

Amanda scolded her. "I have spent almost a thousand years avoiding nasty challenges—it's not that hard to do. LEARN how to do it."

Duncan told her. "That was as well fought as any I have seen in a while—you did not make a single mistake and never gave him a chance to get his balance back."

Connor ruffled her hair which earned a glare from both her and Isabel. "Lass, that was well done. Anytime a headhunter goes down, it's a good thing."

Rachel came up to her and gave her a big hug. "For all the romance of Immortality, I now have seen the bad side of it. And I can understand Connor and the others a little better. Like all the rest of US, I hope you find a way to say NO from now on."

Joe, Rebecca, Cynthia all echoed this. Charley was more direct. "Next time, girl, just cut and run. It will be a whole lot better for you and all of us."

Grace gently hugged her. "Maybe now you can understand why I will never fight. I will not have that happen to me no matter what."

Methos shook his head. "Now that is the other extreme. There is a somewhat happy medium from being like the Boy Scout and never turning one down and Grace never fighting at all. I have done quite well for several millennia not accepting challenges when I absolutely did not have to. It's a good SURVIVAL trait to learn."

Happily, that was the only event to mar the vacation. The rest of the time there was very relaxed in comparison. Which was just what was needed for Max and Liz. They returned to Antar with Connor and Rachel and the other Royals while Duncan and his crew went back to Seacouver. Richie was a little put out that he missed the show, whereupon Amanda smacked him a good one. Then he got it from the other side from Courtney. Duncan smiled and wondered if Richie would ever learn to keep his mouth shut. Methos opinioned that that was like expecting the Rhine to flow backwards.

Cynthia was working on the latest entry to Liz's Chronicle and asked Joe how detailed she should be as regards the fight. Joe told her that it really was not something that had to be exhaustively explained—just go with the highlights. Joe, in the meanwhile, had temporarily transferred Connor's watcher to Seacouver to watch Methos. The Council still did not know that Adam Pierson was Methos, and Joe wanted it kept that way. Connor's watcher was now in the know and would make sure of that.

Back on Antar, Max and the others got back into the business of relocating two worlds. Most of the preparations were already done or about to be, and the system set up was running well. The shipbuilding was at its peak, and so was the pod manufacturing process; while the rest of the preparations moved along. He and Liz would be back on Earth once the second large wave arrived; it was felt that they being there showed that it was a controlled migration and that things were going as well as could be expected. He was disappointed that the scout ships had so far failed to find a suitable planet, but was resigned to it taking a while.

Liz had gone to the Granolith the second day back and had asked it to examine her quickening. The added boost received from Max's healing had stayed with her; now the last quickening had also beefed up hers.

"Your Majesty, my sensors indicate that your quickening has increased 12%. With the background furnished by your friends the Watchers, I was able to extrapolate the relative strength of James Kilgore's quickening. The numbers match my estimate of the effects of his quickening on yours."

Liz was a little puzzled. "When did you get the information on Kilgore's background."

"Rachel McLeod furnished me with a disc with the necessary information on Kilgore's age and his successful quickenings. Also the background on his victims. It was quite complete. With the information I have been gathering from yourself and the other Immortals, I have fabricated a formula that so far has held up as regards age, number of quickening and their strength, and the effects on the winners quickening."

Liz looked thoughtful. "Do you have readings on all the Immortals you have scanned as regards the relative strength of their quickening?"

"Of course."

"Compare Duncan's, Connor's, and Methos' quickenings."

Duncan and Connor are very close as regards strength, Methos has a quickening that is far stronger than either of theirs, of course. It is 10.87 times their relative strength. As a point of reference, your quickening is approx .01% of Methos' quickening."

"Your formula—how is it weighted as regards age vs. number and strength of quickening taken?"

"I used you as the starting point since the exact date and number of quickening you have had are known and the strength of the quickenings you have taken were also known due to the full knowledge of their victims. Cynthia was kind enough to give me that data when I asked her for it. The only variable with you was the effect of the Kings healing of you on your initial wounding and later after the incident in Canada. But the formula has variables built into if for such happenings, and it also held up well. Since I was able to scan you both before and after the Canada incident, that was factored in. The relatively slight difference that Max's initial attempt to heal you made in your quickening helped out."

"I have been under the impression that Max's attempt to heal me was a big factor in how fast I woke up and the relative strength of my quickening from the start."

"All readings and evidence I have had shows that the Kings attempt to heal you had at best a minor effect—he was unable to make a connection, and the energy difference between that and his successful healing of you in Canada is quite large. My conclusion is that you always had a stronger then average quickening even before you were immortal."

A thoughtful Liz went back to their rooms in the Palace. She made a note to talk to Rachel about who asked her to bring the disc—it had to be Joe since he would also be the only person who would have access to that kind of information. Or it could have been Methos—he had admitted that he had backdoor keys to the Watcher Database. The more she thought about it, the more she thought it was Methos—he had been fascinated that the Granolith had been able to isolate and measure the energy of the quickening. She could see him wanting more information and also being in the possession of knowledge that no one else had. He certainly liked that.

Time seemed to fly by, and soon it was the date that the second large wave would arrive on Earth. Max and Liz were there to greet them as the immense ships moved into orbit and then separated with the cargo part landing on the ground. The first wave had gone to the poorest countries first; this wave spread out so that most of the other countries that had requested settlements were taken care of. The last waves would go mostly to four countries; the US, Canada, Australia and Russia. Already Chad and the Sudan and the other poorest of the poor were starting to see the benefits with increased economic activity and lower disease and death rates. This of course helped ease the last of the suspicions and worry on the part of most; the xenophobes and the like were expected to stay the way they were—as only a tiny fraction of the population, it was felt that ignoring them was the best way to go. Though of course, law enforcement and military intelligence kept an eye on them anyway.

While on Earth, Max and Liz had taken the opportunity to visit Roswell (quietly so as not to set off a sensation). Liz was then able to satisfy her suspicion that it had indeed been Methos who had worked to get the data the Granolith had used. She had had the Granolith print out the full report (and it was pretty long), and once on Earth, she had had Cynthia take it with her when she went back to Seacouver. She knew it would irritate Methos that she had found out about it and was a step in front of him.

Liz sat in the back of the Station with Max in a booth the night before they were to go back to Antar. It was not often they had a chance to be an anonymous couple, and they both enjoyed it. She marveled to Max about the differences the last 2 years had made on Roswell. It had doubled in size and population and was figured to double again in a few years. The settlement outside of town was a huge tourist attraction, and the power plant there was already supplying Roswell and the immediate area with very cheap electricity. The old power plant had been mothballed—it was decided to keep it ready to go just in case. With electricity so cheap now, many homes and businesses were converting to electric heat from oil, gas and propane. Electric cars were starting to come out—another benefit of the Alien influence was the advance in battery technology—instead of hundreds of pounds of batteries that had to be replaced every three to five years at huge cost, now they needed only a single bank about the size of a coffee table and they would last at least 20 years. Added to much more efficient electrical motors, and Detroit and other car makers were scrambling to build them fast enough. Gas engine vehicles were rapidly dropping as a share of new sales, even in places were electricity was still more expensive. For large trucks and long haul shipments and the like, Diesel was still the way to go—but it was felt that in a few more years, more technological breakthroughs would change that as well.

With the first large group of Antarians now on Earth, the media had wasted no time in trying for interviews. Max had told them that it was up to them what they wanted to say but cautioned them that anything they said could be subject to twisted and deliberate misinterpretation. That it was better to say little or nothing at all. Most of the Antarians followed that advice, and even the ones that did talk more were very careful about what they said. This of course frustrated the media and made them go after them that much harder. Liz scolded Max for doing that saying that it made things worse. Max defended himself saying that he had no responsibility for making the media happy. Liz pointed out that they really could not afford bad publicity. Max then said if it goes bad, then they go on TV and say the media is deliberately trying to manufacture stories. He pointed out that many surveys showed the public did not exactly trust the media very much anymore and that it would probably be a wash. Liz told him that it was an unnecessary risk.

With the Antarians being very close mouthed, the media then began to demand to go to Antar. Max told them that they were welcome to go back on one of the ships, but that meant they had to be podded. When they then demanded the Granolith take them, he flat out told them that it was for special purposes only, and they used it only when necessary. No media allowed. When more of them clamored to go, Max then went against Liz's advice and took it to network TV. He made the point that all the Antarians would be on Earth in little over a year or so and sending anyone to Antar made little sense. He then said that he was King of Antar, and his primary responsibility was to his people, not to make any reporters happy, and if they did not like that, then too bad. This went all over the world, and while there were some that claimed he was hiding something, the great majority of people agreed with him and enjoyed the fact that the ALL MIGHTY MEDIA was being told no and they were stuck with it. One person in an on the street interview really skewered the media by saying, "They think they are above all laws everywhere and that no one can say no to them. Well guess what—someone did, and now they are whining. Ask us if we care." That was so juicy that it got sent everywhere and put on blogs and the like, and more and more people said basically the same thing. Survey after survey and poll after poll showed 80-90% of those asked agreed with that. And the media, suddenly realizing that they had no support, backed off as they were told by owners and publishers and the like that they were threatening the bottom line and enough was enough. One commentator rather sheepishly admitted that the media had earned the dislike and distrust that this incident had uncovered. "We did this to ourselves. We squandered the trust we once had. We were arrogant and refused to admit our mistakes and acted like God. And we have earned the result. Look into the mirror, fellow reporters. We have only ourselves to blame." And just like that, the badgering and pushing disappeared.

Liz was totally surprised by the result and admitted that she had been wrong. She told Max that she had bought into the theory that the media always wins no matter what. And he had just blown that theory right out of the water. Max was rather proud of himself. Liz then suggested that a picked few reporters be taken by the Granolith for a visit to Antar. Max agreed with that but who to pick. Liz thought that Randi McFarland, Duncan's media friend from Seacouver should be one. And then a couple of network reporters and a few others from around the world. Max agreed with that, then decided to ask everyone else for their opinions and who should go. Grace had a good idea about the reporters in Europe and suggested one British reporter and an Italian one. Joe suggested one from Japan that had always impressed him. After talking to a few others, they got one from Australia and one from Canada. That totaled 8, and Max said that was enough.

Needless to say, all of those asked jumped at the chance. Randi called up Duncan and thanked him—if this went well, she would probably get a major anchor position out of it. He told her that she had earned it by being honest. One week later, they were sent to Antar. They were given 2 weeks to talk to whoever they wanted to. They then asked for an extra week to go to Granular. Lord Lanar granted that request and had them transported by his own personal ship from Antar. Needless to say, despite all being veteran reporters, they were somewhat overwhelmed. From the transport by the Granolith to the ship taking them to Antar to being transported back covered a lot of what they had to say. They then went on to describe the work on the ships and the pods, and deciding what to take with them and what to preserve on another planet for the future, and how this had affected them.

When the reporters returned and filed their stories and had their time on TV, the overall effect was positive. They had not been able to find many that disagreed with what was going on, and those few were frankly on the lunatic fringe and was shown to be that way. An unexpected and to a certain extent unwelcome part to Max and Liz was the virtual universal approval and love shown to them by everyone, even most of the Granularians. Max rather wryly noted that it seemed also universal that the Queen was more popular then he was. Liz was a little embarrassed about that. Maria thought it was great—and so did most of the others. Liz said it was being exaggerated. Grace told her that it was not—she had indeed done a lot that was very important, and that was what the polls and surveys showed. This pretty much shot down the last of the critics on earth except those that had their own agenda and were just pretty much prejudiced against them for religious or other reasons.

One other not so good result of all this was that Liz got even more publicity and more attention—Maria tweaked her about being the next "Princess Diana." Liz rather tartly said that she would rather not considering what she had gone through and ended up dead at 36. Kyle got in a shot at Max by pointing out that Prince Charles had cheated on the princess with a real horse face—he would have to look far and hard to find anyone that ugly. Max retorted that he was a lot smarter than that—he had a wonderful and beautiful queen and intended to be a one woman man. Maria told Michael that he should take some lessons from Max on making his girl feel special. Michael's reply that he had married her hadn't he was not exactly well thought out. Needless to say, a MOUNT ST. Maria eruption followed.

Maria's joke about Princess Diana was not exactly out of the question. Liz had gotten a lot of attention before and even more after the media came back from Antar. Isabel, who actually took the media and that kind of attention seriously enough to keep an eye on it, told Liz that she had no one but herself to blame for that. Unlike most so-called famous women, who were famous because of acting or singing or the like, or even being politicians, Liz was someone who never asked for or sought out fame; and that was another reason so many liked her. Liz had just done what she felt needed to be done, and that fact tended to color a lot of the coverage of her. Also as was abundantly clear, she had gone out and got things done and had had great success. Being very successful also tended to add to the amount of publicity someone got. And unlike politicians who sometimes lost, and actors who had bad films, or singers with dud records, Liz had not failed in anything. She had gone from triumph to triumph, and all at a very young age.

The captain of the scout ship was preparing his monthly report to the King. He wondered at the reason why—it was not like they had found anything, and if they had, they would contact the king immediately. The three ships were ranging farther and farther from the Pegasus System in their quest for a new home. So far, they had come up empty. They were due to return to Antar in a few months for resupply and to rest for a while. That would be the last time they would return to Antar. It was beginning to look like it would take a few years to find a suitable world.

Max read the monthly report from the scout ships and sighed. He was still hoping that they would find a suitable world before they all left Antar and Granular. But he realized that it was just that—hope. It now seemed clear that the search could take several years more. Later that day, in their rooms, he told Liz about the once again negative report from the scout ships. She asked him why they needed to make a monthly report—and he surprised her by saying it was more a case of having them checking in then making a report. He knew the moment they found something he would be contacted. This way, they knew the ships were OK and there were no problems. She nodded at that and said, "I should have figured that out myself. It probably will take a few more years at best. They are all due to return to Antar for resupply and some rest before they set out again. And it will take them a while to return to where they are looking. Have we checked with everyone possible to make sure that they are looking in the best place?" Max nodded and said, "Everyone on earth and here, and the granolith as well. Where they are looking now is the most likely place to find a good planet at least somewhere near here." Liz thought about that. "I think we need to change that to looking for places near Earth now. It's too late to go anywhere else, and our next move will be from Earth. I think we need to reassess things and send them out next to start looking near Earth, and then go outwards." Max looked thoughtful. "Hadn't thought about that, and you are right. I will talk to the space command and the granolith—we need to change things." Liz shook her head. "No, I will do that—you have enough to do. Besides I want to talk to the Granolith and make sure they are using the right search criteria. With such a narrow range in what we need, we must make sure that we are weeding out the wheat from the chaff as quickly as possible."

The very next day, Liz went down to the granolith and told it. "We need to talk." The Granolith hummed and then said. "At your service, Queen Elizabeth." "I want you to describe the search criteria being used by the scout ships right now, and also to change their search after they come back for rest and resupply. From that point on, they will be searching near Earth and working their way outwards. Since at this late date nothing can be changed about going to Earth, the next move will be from there, and we should try and make it as near to earth as possible." The Granolith hummed for a while then replied. "Here is the criteria, your majesty." And then gave it. Liz took it in and thought about it for a while. "Nothing I can see there needs to be changed. So that will stay as it is. I want you working on the best candidates near Earth and then steadily working away from it." "As you wish, your Majesty."

It was now one year to go before the destruction of Antar and Granular. One problem that Max frankly had hoped would go away is that a handful of Antarians and Granularians chose to stay and die with their planets. Most were old and did not want to change; some were clearly mentally unbalanced; and some were just stubborn about believing anything was going to happen. The mental cases were the biggest problem; with all their healing powers, some mental illnesses defied any attempt at cures. There were only a few hundred of those cases. Max had asked for advice from his cabinet, and they all agreed that special provisions needed to be made at one of the settlements for them—they could not be left to die. The rest of them had made their decisions and would be allowed to stay. Max made sure that all were told that the last ship would leave 45 days before the destruction, and that after that, they were on their own. He hoped that as the rogue star came into visual sight that some would change their minds—but if they did not, then so be it.

The biggest wave of refugees had arrived on Earth at the 14 month mark; 140 million. This wave filled the last of the settlements outside of the US, Canada, Australia, and Russia. And then filled the US and Russia quotas and added to Australia and Canada. Max had seen to it that the same percentage of Antarians and Granularians were in each movement. The last of the populations would leave at the 3 month mark. Everyone and everything that was going to Earth would leave at that point. The last of the ships would be finished at the 4 month mark, just enough time to load and be gone. It looked like a total of 207 ships would be done. All but 40 ships would be leaving at that time. Those ships would be taking a load of raw materials—the first real trade between the two systems. Already many of the asteroid miners were leaving for Earth to start setting up asteroid mines in the Sol system. It was hoped to have the first mines going within a year of the miners setting up. First bases had to be established. It had been decided after careful thought to put the first ones on Mars. It was always easier to put bases on planets, even those without an appreciable atmosphere. Those would be the main bases, and some initial processing plants would be built there as well. While Mars had a much weaker gravity then earth, it was enough for practical work to be done. Smaller staging bases would be placed as stations at the Asteroid Belt. Some shuttles would be built to move the ore from the belt to Mars, and then from Mars to the ships orbiting Mars that would take it to Earth. Already mining experts had examined the asteroid belt and had identified a number of relatively small ore that could be captured and taken straight to Mars to be broken down to elements that would be sorted and shipped as the priorities dictated.

One other matter that was annoying but had to be handled carefully was all the invitations that the Royals received for various events and ceremonies in many countries on Earth. Max had rather evilly began to pawn these off to Isabel and Tess. Isabel loved it and Alex went along with amazing patience. Kyle on the other hand swore terrible revenge on Max after Tess found she liked it too. But even these had to be carefully replied to since some would take offence that the King and Queen were not coming. Max found that the protocol minister that he thought was not needed came in real handy on these occasions—the man had a great gift for BS and being able to flatter people into not taking offence. It was explained to him that this was the art of diplomacy; Maria on the other hand suggested a symbol of office for the Protocol Minister; a man leaning on the rear end of a bull with a shovel in his hands.

Still there were some important enough for various reasons that Max and Liz had to go. They made a point of visiting each country that had agreed to settlements; and others that were politically important. They averaged one or two a month. One to Russia was a good example: while the Russian president had run roughshod over the opposition, it was still thought to be a good idea for periodic visits. The routine was fairly constant: Max in blue (The Antarian Royal Color) and Liz in a shade of blue depending on what she felt like. She always wore a dress; usually fairly modern with a few exceptions for certain countries. She ALWAYS wore her sword no matter what—besides, it was expected of her, and people always wanted to see it anyway. More than once, she did her KATA in the middle of the room after enough demands were made. She actually like doing that since she could immerse herself and forget about the formality of the occasion and just lose all other thoughts as she did the KATA. On this occasion, a Russian Sword expert wanted to do his while she did hers. That turned out to be a mistake on his part since by the end, all agreed that she did it better. This amused the Russian President immensely and on the spot awarded Liz the order of the Russian Republic—to great acclaim from the audience. Both Max and Liz had a sneaking suspicion that the President had arranged all this to further stomp all over his opposition. Especially since he just happened to have one ready to go. IT was rather big and gaudy and hung around Liz's neck, and it clashed pretty well with her dress. When they got back to their rooms in the Ritziest Hotel in Moscow, Liz took it off, looked at it, and shook her head. "Talk about a really tacky piece of junk. Have not worn anything that bad since I was last waitressing at the Crashdown." 


	4. Chapter 4

Time seemed to accelerate as the date got closer. Everything was going well and that of course made both Max and Liz worry: they were waiting for the other shoe to drop. At the 6 month point, a problem came up: the other two planets in the Pegasus System informed Max that they were not able to produce enough food for their people. This had always been a problem on those two worlds, and they had had a low population as a result—until space flight became inexpensive. Then Granular and Antar started to export their food surplus. Even during the Civil war, Granular was able to take up the slack and maintain the shipments. Ever since the announcement about the Rogue Dwarf Star crash, programs had been started on both planets to increase their food production. Unfortunately, those programs had had only marginal success. Liz then looked at the scouting ships report and pointed out that one of the planets had an atmosphere close to the last two planets did—with a high methane content. Max then pulled one of the scout ships (they had all been back for R&R on Antar) from their looking for a planet to move to, and sent it to that planet to check it out thoroughly. Within a week, it reported that the planet appeared very fertile and should be able to yield a good crop. Max then agreed to assign 4 ships to transport people and equipment and anything else needed to start growing crops. He also agreed to see to it that the planets would receive enough food by buying it from earth to start with, and since it had been already shown that the settlements would all be net food exporters, it would be no problem to grow enough once all the settlements were up and running.

But outside of that, there were no other serious problems. Minor problems had cropped up as regards some of the settlements and the nations they were in. Cultural and religious differences did cause some disputes, but they were settled amicably. The fact that the settlements were already proving to be huge economic advantages ensured that most of the protests and problems were quickly handled.

More pleasant surprises came in the form of Rachel McLeod getting pregnant and having a son. Connor was truly over the moon, and Duncan flat out said he had never seen that much emotion ever from his kinsman. In honor of the mentor who had shaped him, the boy was named Juan. Connor hoped that Ramirez somehow knew. Liz was absolutely gooey over the baby, and Max realized that Liz really wanted more children. He would be happy with more as well but knew they had to wait until after the migration and things had settled down. Working together, the Granolith and Alex had finally come up with a way to block all the energy identified as having the most to do with the Quickening; by using a transmitter to basically white noise that energy, it was calculated that it would take 14-18 months for an immortal to lose his/her quickening. This was longer then on Antar as the Granolith had finally agreed with Liz that there was energy going to the quickening that it had not yet been able to detect and analyze. Its calculation showed that approximately 75% of the energy could be blocked—and that that would ensure the loss of the quickening as on Antar, only slower.

Days started to pass with lightning speed as the time of the last transportation got nearer and nearer. Reports from the new planet being used as a food farm were good—it now looked as if it would supply all that was needed and more. Max announced that 20 of the ships would be left to ensure a good food supply for the remaining planets. That was probably double what was needed, but Max felt that having a good supply of extras was something that was needed when you were talking about something that important.

At the 3 month mark, 60 million more were transported. It had been decided that with the extra ships available there would be two last big migrations. The last of the people would go at the 45 day mark. Max was pleased to notice that there was significantly less media coverage of the second to last movement. That showed that there was less interest and that more people just accepted it and went on with their lives. Most of the settlements were done; only the last 50 or so needed to be finished. It was expected that when the last came from Antar and Granular, their settlements would be done and waiting for them. Max and Liz and the rest of the Royals plus the senior government officials of both planets would leave at the 15 day mark via the Granolith. Once they were transported, then the Granolith would come itself. The Settlement outside of Roswell was done and mostly populated. The new Palace was centered around where the Pods had been, and the resting place for the Granolith was exactly as it was when it left. The full effect of the settlements were just beginning to be felt; the free energy and advanced agricultural and medical technology had already made their mark.

And then it was the day that all but a few were to leave. Max and Liz and Lord Lanar stood watching from their respective palaces as the ships left. Now only those refusing to leave and the royals and the senior government officials were left on both planets. Liz felt weird walking around outside of the palace looking at the deserted city. She and Max made one last effort to convince those staying to leave, but none would. They spent the next 30 days packing and walking around Antar one last time. Both felt sad at what was about to be lost but felt lucky that while they had been comfortable here; it was not like it was really home.

Then the day came for everyone else to leave. Lord Lanar and his remaining people came to Antar on his private ship—it would be loaded aboard one of the transport ships and taken to earth as well. Liz looked up at the sky—you could just barely see the Rogue Dwarf—it was much more visible at night. She and Max had spent their last night sitting up and looking at the stars and especially the Rogue. It was beautiful to see—such a shame it was to cause so much trouble. The group, consisting of the Royals and their children, the Prime Minister and his cabinet, Lord Lanar and his senior officials, stood beside the Granolith. One last look around, and Max quietly said, "Granolith, transport us to earth." "As you wish, Your Majesty," the Granolith replied, and they were gone.

They materialized outside of the Crashdown—Liz wanted it this way since this was where it all started. The PM and his cabinet were taken by Limousine to the settlement. Lord Lanar and his people took Limousines to the Airport where the spare Air Force One was waiting to take them to Canada. Max and the rest went into the Crashdown to meet their families. It and the Station were closed that day. A few hours later, Limousines arrived to take them to the settlement and the new Royal Palace. The route was cordoned off by the State Police and National Guard troops. The last quarter mile to the settlement was secured by an honor guard from over 150 nations. Max and Liz were very pleased by this last evidence of how they all had been accepted. Max ordered the Limousine to stop while he and Liz got out and walked the last quarter mile acknowledging the Honor Guards individually. The rest of the convoy went into the settlement. This took almost an hour. They looked very well since Isabel had been the one to buy off on their outfits. Max in his Royal Robes and Liz in her best Ball Gown. He would bow to each honor guard while Liz curtsied, then raised her sword and saluted the Honor Guard. Max had quietly, and to Liz's great embarrassment, made it a Royal Decree that no one could wear a sword at an official ceremony except those that had proven themselves in battle with one. While Technically Max and Michael could also wear swords, both had made it clear that Liz was the only one that truly deserved the honor. It was not easy for Liz to curtsy and then salute with her sword, but she had steadily practiced for weeks.

There was a grand Ball in the New Royal Palace that night. Dignitaries and celebrities and over 50 heads of state attended. Liz danced with over 30 men and was pretty worn out. Max claimed so was he since he had to dodge all the women wanting to touch a real alien king. They had agreed that this first ball would be open to the general public. Within reason of course. Over 1000 attended. Luckily, the Ball Room was huge. Max had started it off with a short speech on how they were grateful for their new TEMPORARY home and that no one knew how long it would take to find a new world to move to.

After that, what came was, as Maria called it, the "Death Watch". The Granolith would stay until the last day and then leave so that the world could get a good look. Once it left, they would have to wait for the last ships to arrive that would be leaving at the same time to see any more since there was nothing else that could transmit over that distance at such speed. A few satellites would be there to record the last minutes of the two planets, and they would transmit it to the ships just before they engaged the hyper drive.

Most of the world was watching the last day as the Rogue got closer and closer. Antar would be first, then one day later Granular. As the Granolith lef,t the first effects of the Rogue were beginning to be felt as winds and tides began to go crazy and the planet began to heat up. Its last picture showed the fault lines of the planet begin to come apart as volcanoes and other natural forces began to react. The arrival of the Granolith was something of an anticlimax as it just appeared where it had been for 50 years before. Maria was of the opinion it was probably a good thing that the recent refugees could not see their planets destroyed right now—in 8 months when the last of the ships arrived, they would have settled down, and it would not be such a shock—and those on the ships would be in their settlements when they were woken up, and it would not be so bad since they would be busy settling in themselves.

Liz looked around at their rooms in the New Palace. Even though she had seen the designs and pictures of how it looked, it still took some getting used to. Isabel had shamelessly campaigned to be the interior decorator of the New Palace, and it showed. Definitely flashy and opulent, but Liz could not deny that Isabel had good taste. She wondered how long they would be there, how long would it take to find a new planet. She hoped it would be a few years—she wanted some less stressful times for a while.

The next few weeks were a little hectic as everyone settled in. There was still the last big wave to come, and right after that, the last few ships that left right at the end. Max was determined to have all the settlements done before the last refugees came. So far, there had not been any big problems—just the expected troubles of different cultures living side by side. And so far, the benefits had far outweighed the problems. The huge savings in energy and health care and increasing food production was having a major effect on the poorest countries. Many were climbing out of the abject poverty that, up until a year or so ago, had appeared to be permanent. Even the better developed countries were seeing great advantages. Siberia was beginning to boom for the first time in its history; the Outback was blossoming; and the Canadian Shield was showing real life.

But the most noticeable changes were happening out in space. The first stations on Mars had been finished, and the first ones in the asteroid belt had been started. The processing plants were almost done, and the first asteroids were already on their way. The ones that could be transported whole had been chosen first—this supply would last for a couple of years before the need to start breaking them up came around. The ships that had been used for transportation were now being stationed around Mars, waiting to start taking loads of high quality ore to Earth. There was talk of establishing iron smelters and other plants of that type on the Moon; though there were questions about how much an effect the much lighter gravity of the Moon would have on the processing and pouring of raw materials into useable items; all the ore from the asteroid belt in Pegasus had been taken to the planets or processed in orbital stations that had full gravity. Experiments were being made to see if that would be a problem; if it could be beaten, then the gradual removal of all such plants to the moon was in the foreseeable future. If the highly polluting plants of that type could be removed from Earth, it would be a good deal for all.

The impact of all the new technology now available was having a huge impact on the world, if only gradually becoming apparent. The solar power plants and the fusion reactors were revolutionizing those areas; the rapid replacement of coal and gas power plants would soon have a large impact on pollution, especially in the developing countries. Once those plants came on line, electricity became much cheaper and more reliable. Less noticeable but equally important was the replacement of transformers and power substations with cheaper and smaller versions that had no nasty hazardous components. It would take a couple of years, but new transmitters that would send the power to distribution centers without the need for wire would also make for big changes. A huge amount would be saved by not having to replace and repair lines and towers.

The advances in medical technology was also just starting to be felt. Scanners that put x-ray machines and even MRI's to shame were beginning to spread around the planet. There would no longer be the need for expensive blood and tissue tests and biopsy's and the like; and the genetic repair of faulty DNA would stop many diseases such as MS and Cancer; and genetic faults that led to other diseases such as heart disease and diabetes and the like would be stopped before the children were even born. And for those who already had the diseases, there were many that could be cured by advanced gene therapy and operating techniques that were as advanced as modern Earth medicine was over the Middle Ages.

Most immediately apparent was the agricultural advances. Soil like in the Outback that had never been productive at all were now showing respectable yields. And marginal soil elsewhere were producing the same yields that top farmland had shown before. And the top rated soils were coming up with crops that were almost unbelievable: yields of 300 bushels an acre in Corn and Wheat and soybeans and others. Max had promised that excess crops that found no buyers nearby would be transported free of charge to places in the world that still needed it. Anti gravity equipped shuttles the size of a dozen river barges could move food from one side of the world to another in less than 2 hours. These ships, powered by fusion reactors, cost literally pennies to operate.

The impact of technology would soon permeate everyday life. Already more shuttles were being built to go along with the 150 that had come from Antar. Larger ones were being designed that would take the place of super tankers and container ships. Though the supertankers would only be needed for a few more years as the need for oil shrank drastically. Goods and materials could then be transported worldwide in hours instead of days and weeks.

Some leaders and others were worried about the turmoil, both economic and social that all these advances coming so close together would have. Others felt that society would adjust just as it had to all the previous advances. The skeptics pointed out that never had so many hit together like these would. But all agreed that nothing was going to stop it—just how to cope with it.

Max and Liz stood looking out their bedroom window at the mountains up close that they had seen all their lives. The Palace, unlike the rest of the buildings, was only 5 stories tall and right at the apex of the settlement, so there was nothing blocking the view of the surrounding country side. One other advance was that of building technology and design; while Antar was (or had been) fairly benign as regards violent storms and earthquakes and the like, Granular had been just about as active as Earth was. So buildings that were earthquake and tornado and the like proof had been built for many years. Though few had been built as tall as the settlement buildings, and none were as tall as some of Earth's skyscrapers. But the basic designs were there for modification. That would soon change more of Earth's day to day living.

Liz rested her head on Max's shoulder. "Well, one cannot say the last six years were exactly boring, can you?"

Max smiled. It had not been often that they had time to just sit back and enjoy life. "No, but right now, I could take boring for say, 6 months or so."

Liz wrinkled her nose. "Well maybe 3 months. More than that, and I would either go up the wall or take my sword and go headhunter hunting."

"OK, three months it is." 


End file.
